The Iceman Cometh!
by stophoggingtheblanket
Summary: When a new girl comes to Seigaku, the regulars start getting some... uhm... interesting ideas to brighten up Tezuka's life. TezukaxOC
1. Chapter 1

_I was suddenly seized with an unexplainable desire to do a Tezuka fic, and this was the result. Which just goes to show what unnamed horrors I manage to churn out after going on a sugar high... Read on!_

**Chapter 1**

It wasn't that he had any particular animosity against girls. Really. It was just that they were simply too noisy and overly emotional for their own good. And they gave him headaches.

Big, _big_ headaches.

Tezuka repressed a sigh as he spotted an unknown member of the female species determinedly making her way towards him. _Another one..._ Perhaps if he just closed his eyes and ignored her she'd go away.

"Tezuka-san?" Apparently today just wasn't his day.

If he was lucky, the confession this time wouldn't be as dramatic as the other day... He winced at the memory. "Yes?"

"Ryuuzaki-sensei wants to see you."

_Oh._ That sort of took the wind out of his sails.

"I'll be right there."

"Hai." She bowed, and left the room.

He packed up his things, putting his books neatly into his bag before zipping it all the way. As he walked through the corridors, he was hard pressed to ignore the sudden whispers that seemed to spring up every time he was somewhere in sight. Not to mention the inordinate amount of girlish giggling that he somehow, ridiculously, inspired. He suppressed the urge to sigh again, and comforted himself with the thought that the tennis club room, at least, would be a safe haven of peace and quiet.

He knocked twice before entering, out of habit more than anything else. Ryuuzaki-sensei was there, as well as a girl whom he didn't know.

"You wished to see me, sensei?"

Ryuuzaki-sensei looked up. "Ah, yes! Tezuka! I need your help."

Not being one to waste words, he simply waited for her to elaborate further.

But when her request came, it was not at all what he expected.

"Could you please show Maika-chan around the school?"

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'Maika-chan', or Tawako Kamaika, as he later found out her full name was, was apparently one of Ryuuzaki-sensei's close friend's daughters. Apart from that, and the fact that she was a new student at Seigaku, he gleaned precious little from the older woman's introduction.

He bowed slightly, and intoned the expected greeting politely. "Dozo yoroshiku onegaishimasu."

Silently, he asked forgiveness from the tons of homework sitting in his bag. They would have to wait until he finished showing this girl around. Besides, it wasn't as if he had a choice, anyway.

He gestured to her, and she trailed him obediently to the door. Neither of them attempted to start up a conversation.

_Really, they would make quite a fitting pair together – not exactly the world's most sociable pair, but they complement each other quite nicely..._ was the thought which flitted through Ryuuzaki-sensei's mind before she turned back to the papers on her desk.

------------------------------

"And this is the koi pond." Tezuka was doing his job thoroughly, showing her around the school. _Very_ thoroughly. He suspected that if Fuji could see him now, he'd be rolling about in fits of laughter at how much Tezuka was a stickler for the rules.

"That's classroom 3-1." He pointed out the class where he had been seated merely minutes ago, before he had been called to do this absurd task.

"Oh!" The girl said in quite a different tone of voice. Then she added, much to Tezuka's dismay, "That's my class!"

He managed, with some difficulty, to control his sudden urge to scream, as he knew now just _how_ he was going to spend the next one week or so. Interacting with Ryuuzaki-sensei also meant he knew exactly how her brain worked, and she had long since been of the opinion that Tezuka needed more of a social life.

He was so, _so_ dead.

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_So, should I continue? Or is it far too cracky? I must admit that I enjoyed writing it, though. I know it's really short, but this seemed like a good place to end the chapter, so..._

_Review!_


	2. Chapter 2

_Thanks for reviewing, everybody! Here's Chapter 2, and I hope I didn't disappoint you too much..._

**Chapter 2**

"Ohayou." She smiled politely at the boy beside her. He was the same boy who had showed her around the school yesterday. Not a particularly interesting specimen of a boy, but still, one had to mind one's manners, no matter how loathsome the person.

Not that he was loathsome. In fact, he was pretty good-looking, to tell the truth. She looked at him out of the corner of her eye. He flipped a page and continued reading as if he was in a private world where only he and the book existed.

He was just _very_ boring.

And even that was an understatement. He hadn't uttered a single word, either to her or to anyone else since he entered the class. Instead he had headed straight to his table, taken out a book and started reading. She had never seen such a hermit before. And being who she was, she simply decided to return the favour.

The teacher swept in, putting his books on the table with a flourish.

"Today, we have a new student here from Kyoto. Tawako-san, can you please introduce yourself?"

"Sure!" She flashed a dazzling smile at the teacher and stood up, suddenly feeling very insecure as she saw all eyes directed at her with bright curiosity.

Well, all except one.

Tezuka still had his nose buried in the book.

_Who does he think he is, anyway? It's insulting!_

She pointedly turned her back on him as she started her introduction. "Hi. My name is Tawako Kamaika, and I am..."

Her introduction turned out to be a lot more spirited than originally planned.

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The whole day, she managed to keep up with what the class was studying. For although Tezuka had informed her in a monotonous voice that if she needed any help she could ask him, he had also made it quite clear that short of an earthquake happening, she was to disturb him only at risk of incurring his great wrath.

She had a sudden, immature urge to stick out her tongue at him.

She'd never, _ever_ ask for help from him, anyway. Not even if he were the last person on earth. She turned her thoughts back to the doomed story of World War II and started pondering how to make an atomic bomb.

-----------------------

He looked at the book, detailing how the war started. He knew all this by heart already, but he reasoned that reading it another time wouldn't hurt him, and he listened to the teacher's explanation intently.

A slight stirring by his side startled him, and he was extremely disturbed to find that the word 'ghost' came to mind first. It was a moment before he remembered that someone was sitting here now.

Tezuka sighed. He was so used to having the place next to him empty (partly because nobody managed to survive the forbidding aura surrounding him for more than a day) and now this girl was sitting there. He knew it was ridiculous, but he felt like she was encroaching on _his_ space.

He resisted the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose and settled instead for another sigh.

--------------------

Maika took her bento and sat the nearest empty table, ignoring the curious looks some people were shooting at her. Taking out her chopsticks, she was about to put the sushi in her mouth when she had a sudden inkling of what was wrong.

"Hurry, up, Fujiko! I'm hungry, nya!" She looked up to see two boys headed her way, one redhead and a brunette, both chatting animatedly.

Then they noticed her sitting there, and they froze. Seeing the expressions on their faces, her sushi stopped halfway to her mouth, and she started to panic. _What did I do wrong?_

"Who are you?" The redhead took a step nearer, looking at her as if she was an alien.

She swallowed audibly, and stuck out her hand. "I'm Tawako Kamaika, new student at Seigaku."

"Oh, _new_ student!" He smiled, showing a whole row of pearly whites. "Welcome to Seigaku! My name's Kikumaru Eiji, but you can just call me Eiji."

He turned to the other boy and whispered, "For a moment, I thought she was one of those rabid fangirls, nya!"

_Rabid fangirls? _She didn't know whether to laugh or to be affronted.

The brunette simply smiled and extended his hand to her. "Fuji Syuusuke, Class 3-6. Dozo yoroshiku."

She shook his hand, and started to lift her neglected piece of sushi to her mouth when she realised that they were sitting at the same table as her. Her eyes grew wide as she realised what a terrible social crime she'd committed.

"This is your table?"

When Eiji nodded happily in confirmation, she put down her chopsticks. "Then I guess I shouldn't bother you here..."

"Oh, don't worry about it." Fuji said, waving a hand dismissively.

Eiji was somewhat more specific. "Stay, nya! It doesn't really matter. Besides, all the other tables are full already!"

She looked around and saw that it was, indeed, the truth. The whole cafeteria was teeming with students, and needless to say, every table was fully occupied. She didn't really relish the idea of another round of introductions either, so she took them at their word and sat back down.

"Fuji. Eiji." A sudden deep voice disrupted her current enjoyment of her food. She turned around to see who it was, and came face to face with the one person she most definitely did _not_ expect, nor want to see.

Tezuka Kunimitsu, her seating partner.

By the look on his face, Tezuka was about as happy to see her as she was to see him. He wore the sort of expression you get when you find an extraordinarily smelly sock in the wash. Which was extremely flattering.

Not.

"Maa, Tezuka, say hello," Fuji looked at the bespectacled boy, grinning as the older boy started slightly.

"Hello, Tawako-san." He greeted curtly, to which she replied with an equally curt nod.

_Tezuka knows her?_ Fuji made a mental note to look that up later.

Maika chose to totally ignore Tezuka's presence, concentrating instead on her food and Eiji's lively conversation. She was so caught up in the contemplation of her food that she got quite a shock when she looked up and saw that the table had filled up with boys of all sizes and shapes. She got a second successive shock when she realised that she was the only girl there.

Eiji noticed her uncomfortable behaviour and mistook it for shyness, but of a different sort.

"Don't worry, nya! They're just the other regulars. Some of them are pretty creepy, like Inui, but – "

"Regulars?" Unable to contain her curiousity, she interrupted him.

"We're the tennis club regulars, hoi! Everyone knows that!"

"Tennis club regulars..." She repeated. Somehow, she had a bit of difficulty picturing Tezuka playing tennis. The others were believable, but any picture of Tezuka without a pile of books in the background felt a little off to her. After all, he _was_ a proven and certified bookworm. And bookworms and sports usually didn't go together.

It seemed that Tezuka was an exception to this rule, however, as she overheard him telling another boy that they had to be careful and that Ginka Chuu should not be underestimated.

He obviously wasn't the adventurous type, that much was apparent. She choked as a sudden picture of him bungee jumping surfaced in her mind. _I have to stop thinking in graphic images..._

------------------------

It was only a few days later that she found out what Eiji had meant by "rabid fangirls". There was a sort of mutual agreement between Tezuka and herself now, which consisted mainly of ignoring each other's existence. It suited both of them just fine, and she was beginning to think that perhaps sitting next to a human ice block wasn't all that bad until those illusions were rapidly shattered one fine day.

"Tawako-san." She looked up to see a few girls in front of her.

She simply smiled, as she had not the faintest idea who they were or what they wanted.

"Could you please do me a favour?"

She came out of the meeting burdened with some very pink envelopes and a few gifts addressed to Tezuka Kunimitsu, captain of Seigaku's tennis team.

----------------------------

Tezuka looked up as a small avalanche of assorted junk came raining down onto his desk, courtesy of the one and only Tawako Kamaika.

He frowned irritably. "What are these?"

She shrugged. "Some girls asked me to give them to you."

As she walked off, she shot over her shoulder. "And do tell your fan club that I'm not their mailman."

"Unless they pay me, of course." She added as an afterthought, a twinkle in her eyes.

And she walked off, leaving him staring at the unwanted pile of presents on his table.

----------------------------

Some of his fangirls, however, had different concerns.

"Don't touch my Tezuka!"

She snorted slightly. It wasn't even a week since she'd moved here and people were accusing her of stealing their imaginary boyfriend! Unbelievable, especially since said boyfriend's words to her only amounted to less than ten sentences per day.

"Don't worry, he's all yours." And she walked off, wondering what kind of school she had transferred into. The girls here weren't just crazy, they also had questionable taste. How could you ever hope to start a relationship with a walking iceman? It was testament to the girls' staying power, she supposed, that they kept on showering him with gifts and attention despite being rejected over and over again. Either that or they were infinitely obsessed with Seigaku's star player.

Who just happened to have the emotional capabilities of a block of wood, unfortunately for them.

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_So how was it? Review, ne?_


	3. Chapter 3

_Thanks to everyone who reviewed - you made my day! And to my dear sister, also known as "xiayen" (how she came up with that horrible mispronounciation of her name is beyond me), I am really sorry because... well, to put it frankly, I've gone too far in the previous chapter to make Maika like what she was in the first chapter - unless you want her to have schizophrenia, of course. Read on!_

**Chapter 3**

"Tezuka-kun?"

Tezuka frowned. _Four hundred and twenty-eight subtracted by two hundred and seventeen... That would be two hundred and eleven... now divided by thirteen..._

"Tezuka-kun."

"What is it?" He asked curtly, not very pleased at having been disturbed while doing a complex calculation.

"Could you please pick up my eraser? It's on the floor by your desk."

Ordinarily he would have complied and picked it up, but he was halfway into a mind-numbing question which he had no desire to start all over again just for an eraser. His tone was bitingly sarcastic as he replied, not even looking up from his work, "I believe you have this pair of appendages, also commonly known as hands, which enable you to do such a feat as picking things up. I suggest you use them."

"I would," She replied pleasantly, "but it's at your side and I can't reach it."

He decided to ignore her, and turned back to the question.

Maika realised that Tezuka refused to help her pick it up, and there was no use waiting for him to do so. She wasn't lying when she said that she couldn't reach it, though. She looked at the white eraser, lying by the far side of Tezuka's desk, and back at her work. Since she couldn't very well continue without an eraser, she leaned down as far as she could and stretched out her hand.

_Just a little bit more... a bit nearer... That's it!_ She rejoiced as her fingers brushed the side of the eraser. And in her sudden delight, she overbalanced.

She clutched wildly at the nearest stationary object, which just happened to be Tezuka's arm. Thrown off-balance by the extra weight, any chances of him staying upright soon vanished as Maika fell off her chair, bringing him down with her in a tremendous crash.

There was stunned silence for a moment as the class processed what had just happened. A groan came from the floor, startling all of them into sudden activity. The girls rushed to Tezuka's side, while Oishi started fussing about.

Maika found herself in a rather painful and extremely compromising position with Tezuka. His body was pressed closely against hers, and he was... well, let's just say that she didn't normally carry bags the weight of his body around. She was quite literally squashed under him, besides the fact that the scene looked extremely suggestive to an outsider.

"Ow... get off me, Tezuka!"

Tezuka, however, was having problems of his own. It was extraordinarily difficult to get up if a whole horde of girls were hovering over you anxiously, especially if you knew that in the process of getting up you'd hit them, thanks to the almost non-existent distance separating them.

But Maika did not appreciate the complexity of the situation. Seeing that he was not making much effort to get up (partly because of the girls, but she didn't know that), she took it upon herself to make him get up.

She pushed him, and with almost inhuman strength managed to lift him off her for a fraction of a second. Although she did not manage to push him off her enough for her to get up, it achieved its desired purpose: Tezuka got up almost immediately.

He brushed himself off, silently thankful that he had the foresight to avoid all the girls while getting up – or else he would probably have been kissed or molested a hundred and one times by now.

Maika wasted no time in getting up, once she was free of Tezuka's body, and turned around to see the teacher staring disapprovingly at both of them.

"I would like to see both of you after school."

When Maika opened her mouth to protest, the teacher said coldly, "And I suggest you do not create a worse disturbance than you already have if you do not want more detention."

There was a short pause before the teacher commanded, "Everyone back to their desks!"

Maika picked up her overturned chair, pointedly ignoring Tezuka as she tidied up her place before returning to her work. He did the same, and they stewed in angry silence for the rest of the lesson.

-----------------------------------

Fuji walked in, his smile stretching from ear to ear as he thought about the interesting bit of news that was currently making its way round the school.

He spotted Tezuka and made his way to where the said buchou was sitting expressionlessly with his bento. "Saa, Tezuka, what happened in class today?"

Tezuka's eyebrow started twitching slightly, but he managed to control his facial muscles as he replied, "Nothing."

"Really?" Fuji smiled.

Tezuka did not answer, but Fuji noticed that the twitch grew slightly more pronounced.

"I heard a rumour that you were making out under the desk with a girl until the teacher caught you and gave you detention."

Tezuka nearly spat out his sushi. He glared coldly at the other boy. "Excuse me?"

"You may be excused, Tezuka." And Fuji walked off, smiling widely.

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"Both of you, clean up the class. I expect to see it spotless by the time I return."

The silence after the teacher left was deafening. Maika shot him one last glare, before sullenly picking up the broom.

He cleared his throat. For some reason, her glare irritated him more than it should have.

"It's your fault that we're in detention now." He resisted the urge to add, _and I'm stuck here instead of practising tennis._

"_My_ fault?" He could practically feel those brown eyes burning a hole through his shoulder blades. "If you had just bothered to pick that eraser up, none of this would have happened!"

A small snort expressed his opinion of that statement. "And who, may I ask, pulled me down with her?"

She crossed her arms. "Not my fault you couldn't keep your balance!"

"_I _couldn't keep _my_ balance?" Really, it was funny how this girl managed to rub him the wrong way down from the word go.

She rolled her eyes. "Go ahead, put the blame all on me."

He did not feel a need to reply to that, as it was quite obviously her fault anyway. Instead, he just picked up the other broom and started sweeping.

But Maika was not finished with him yet.

"Just because you're the _famed_ captain of the _oh-so-popular_ Seigaku tennis club, it doesn't mean you're perfect! Even perfect people make mistakes sometimes – and if they do, they should be brave enough to admit them. No matter how big a fan club they have…"

"Or how freaky…" She added under her breath.

Realising that she was going to keep on about this until he apologised, he swallowed his pride and gave in.

"I should have picked up that eraser," He said stiffly, his own words sounding foreign to his ears. Tezuka Kunimitsu _never _apologised to anyone.

Maika started in surprise. Did he just say he was sorry? Her first reaction was to do a victory dance, but then she decided against it. She still didn't like him. After all, he just took all the fun out of arguing. And she told him as much.

Tezuka was shell-shocked. He gave her an apology, and this was what he got?

"Fine," Was all he said. But there was an unspoken message behind that single word: _See if I ever make the effort to do anything for you ever again, ungrateful girl!_

She laughed, and the merry sound startled him. "I was just kidding, Tezuka-kun. Really, you should learn to loosen up a little…"

His lips, which had relaxed into an almost-smile at her first words, thinned into a straight line at the last sentence. Everybody was always telling him to go and loosen up… He thought he had let down his guard more than enough times with devastating consequences – he still remembered the time Fuji decided that telling the whole school about his birthday would be doing him a great favour – and he had absolutely no desire to repeat the experience.

The rest of the world could just go jump off a cliff for all he cared.

----------------------------------

Maika stepped out of the classroom, only to be accosted by a group of girls.

"Yes?" She asked.

One girl shook her finger at her, almost incoherent with rage. "You - you - how could you play dirty like that?! Just because you sit next to him doesn't mean he likes you any more than us, you get that?"

Maika stared incredulously at them for a moment before their meaning struck her. "You think I _planned_ this - the detention and everything?"

The girl shrugged. "It's pretty obvious. I mean, we're not _that_ stupid."

Maika was having a little trouble believing her ears. "Who in their right mind would want to go for detention - with Tezuka Kunimitsu, no less?"

Tezuka chose this moment to step out of the classroom. He looked blankly at the horde of girls, and at Maika.

She caught his eye, and shrugged. "Beats me."

And she walked off, leaving him with a crowd of girls looking adoringly at him.

"Tezuka-sama! I love you!"

He sighed, and turned to walk away before the oncoming headache grew any worse. Maika had been right about one thing. His fan club was _really_ freaky.

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_So how was it? Review, ne?_


	4. Chapter 4

_I'm done! Finally! Anyway, before you read this chapter, let me warn you that this is utter crack and does not contain anything in the way of romantic development of any sort - for anybody... Ja, read on!_

**Chapter 4**

"There's _so much_ homework!" Maika wailed, looking at the mountain-high pile of books that had steadily been growing ever since first period. "How am I ever going to finish it?"

Tezuka simply looked at her, having been disturbed by all the banging on her table.

She looked at the books. "Sometimes I think teachers were put here just to torture us poor students…"

His disapproving frown clearly said that talking about teachers like that was very bad manners. But Maika was too busy bemoaning the tons of homework given to care.

"And I have that stupid music class tonight…" Her grumbling was beginning to grate on his nerves.

He tried to tune her out, focusing instead on his English exercise.

"…I don't even know how to do half of these…" Somehow, her voice had a very _penetrative_ quality. It wasn't exactly loud, but it had a way of worming itself into one's consciousness, and that was exactly what Tezuka _didn't_ need.

Letting out an exasperated sigh, he turned to her. "Then _read_ the notes sensei gave."

She looked at him as if he was crazy. "And waste all that time which could be spent finishing my homework?"

"You said you didn't know how to do it…" He hated being made a fool of, and she was an expert at doing that, unfortunately for him.

"I'll figure out a way somehow," She said, waving a hand dismissively at him. "And it'll be _much_ faster than reading a bunch of stupid notes."

Taking that last shot as his cue to start ignoring her again, he turned back to his work. Maika noticed it, and a wicked smile formed on her face.

_Mission accomplished._

------------------------------

It wasn't that she purposely set out to aggravate him. He was just so _teasable_. Sometimes she wondered what he would say if she suddenly took on the personality of one of his fan girls for a day. She stifled a small snort of laughter as a vision of him sitting impassively next to a gushing girl with adoring starry eyes presented itself in her brain.

"Do your work." Tezuka admonished her, getting tired of all the little giggles that popped out from time to time. It sounded far too _girlish_ for his comfort.

"Yes, sir." She flashed a meek smile at him before indulging in a last chuckle.

The huge pile of homework obviously had not dented her spirits one bit. He sighed, and started to calculate the formula for pi.

---------------------------------

"It's going to rain soon, don't you think?"

She looked up at the black sky. "I guess so."

Thunder rumbled threateningly as she bid a hasty goodbye to her friend and started off for home. It looked as if she would have to do some serious running unless she wanted to get soaked by what was probably some deadly form of acid rain.

Lightning streaked across the rapidly darkening sky, a moment before the first raindrops started falling.

"!!!"

The comfort of home suddenly seemed very far away as she ran for the nearest bus stop a good hundred metres away. She was quite thoroughly soaked by the time she got to the (in her opinion) rather measly form of shelter, but it was better than standing unprotected in the freezing rain. She shivered slightly, and perched on a seat nearby in an attempt to get comfortable.

"What do you mean you can't come? I don't care if you're stuck in a jam! Just come and pick me up _now_!!!"

She looked up to see a boy roughly about her age shouting into a cellular phone. He snapped the phone shut and leaned on the wall of the bus stop, looking extremely displeased about something.

_He has a phone!_

She moved over to where he was peering dissatisfiedly into the rain and tapped his shoulder lightly.

"Excuse me," She began.

He turned around with a start. "Don't scare me like that, Ka-" He stopped abruptly as his brain finally registered that what he was seeing was not Kabaji, but a girl.

"Who are you?" His tone was unfriendly, and his eyes traveled up and down from her head to her toes, as if assessing her.

She flushed, knowing she must look quite a sight right now, with bedraggled hair and soaked uniform, but she wasn't one to back down from what she had started.

"Could I borrow your phone for a moment?"

He stared at her, wondering what sort of girl dared to ask to borrow a stranger's phone. A pretty desperate one, obviously. But he couldn't just lend his phone to mere commoners, especially a Seigaku student. She'd need a brilliant reason to convince him otherwise.

"Who are you?" He repeated insistently.

She looked at him. What difference did her name make, anyway? But if he wanted to conduct an introduction in the rain, he was free to do so. After all, she _did_ need that phone quite badly.

"I'm Tawako Kamaika. And you?"

Her name didn't ring any bells. But since she asked so nicely, she could have his name. "Atobe Keigo."

He said it with such flair that she half-believed he actually expected her to swoon or kneel at his feet. But maybe that was just the way he talked… She shrugged it off, and asked hopefully. "So could I?"

He was wondering why she didn't respond at all to his name. "Could you what?"

"Could I borrow your phone?" She repeated patiently.

He looked at her as if she had just suggested he run out and dance naked in the rain. "Of course not!"

"But why not?" She frowned. "I'll pay you back, if money's what you're worried about."

He quite nearly choked on that. "Money?!!"

"Yes," Then a sudden insight into the root of his problem occurred to her. "I _do_ have money, you know."

He looked highly insulted. "Ore-sama has _more_ than enough money!"

"Well then, that's good!" She still didn't get what he was so upset about. "If you don't want me to pay, there's no problem. I just want to borrow your phone!"

"I don't want to lend you my phone!"

"Why not?" She was starting to get more than a little annoyed. It was just a single call, for goodness' sake!

"Because you're not worthy of it!" He was shouting by now.

"WHAT?!" Now she was _really_ mad. "Don't be silly!"

"I'm _not_ being silly!" Atobe simply didn't get why she couldn't understand his logic.

"Yes, you are! Not worthy my foot! If you're just too selfish to lend me your phone, just _say_ so! There's no need to hide behind your lame excuses!"

"Are you calling me a _coward_?!!!"

---------------------------------

When his driver arrived, he found his young master engaged in a shouting battle against a young lady.

"Atobe-san?"

Atobe gave him a cursory glance before promptly ignoring him in favour of shouting a reply back to the last insult hurled at him.

The driver winced at the colourful language. "Atobe-san, you really should be getting back…"

"You're a – a nincompoop!"

Atobe was momentarily stumped, but he soon came up with a suitable reply. "And you're a sodden piece of tempura gone bad!"

Their argument was not very mature, to say the least.

"Argghhh! I give up! Talking to you is like talking to the wall!!"

"That's because you're silly enough to talk to it!" He shot back.

The rain did not show any signs of letting up, and Maika suddenly remembered something which had quite gone out of her head during the shouting match.

"Oh, shucks!" She balled her hands into fists. "My homework!"

"What about it?" He asked, not very pleased that she was changing the subject. It was his motto never to leave a match unfinished.

"It's due tomorrow, and there are tons of it!" She counted on her fingers, her face turning ashen at the sudden realization. "And I have less than half a day to finish it!"

"You've still got tonight, haven't you?" He said impatiently.

His question only served to make things worse. "My music class! Crap!"

He looked at her. "Well then, what are you waiting for? Go home and finish it!"

She rounded on him, eyes shooting sparks. "Go _home_?! The only reason I'm not there right now is because of _you_!!!!"

"And this stupid rain…" She added under her breath.

"Then use the phone!" He thrust the object at her.

She looked at it. "No thanks. I think I'll just walk home. Besides, I would probably dirty the receiver or something."

"In the rain?" He couldn't believe her. "You must be crazy!"

"Yes, I am. From talking to you." She shot him a pointed glare. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to get home."

And she began walking out into the rain, leaving behind an extremely stunned Atobe and his driver.

"You'll get pneumonia!"

"I was already wet anyway!" She shouted back.

Atobe shook his head. "Well, if you die, your blood is on your own head!"

She rolled her eyes. "Yes, I know." And with that, she walked off and soon disappeared from sight.

"Crazy girl…" He muttered, and got into the limousine.

----------------------------

"At-choo!" Maika sneezed again, much to her annoyance. That guy - Atobe-san, was it? - well, whatever his name was, his prediction had come true. She wondered briefly if he had voodoo-ed her, but then dismissed the idea.

Tezuka wrote on, trying to ignore the frequent sneezes, and even more frequent sniffles. How she came down with the flu he had no idea, but he didn't want to share in her misery either. He inched his chair just the slightest fraction of a centimetre away, and tried to take shallow breaths so as not to inhale the germs.

After a while, he started to sound rather like a dying horse. Maika looked over from her book.

"Are you alright, Tezuka?" She asked curiously.

He chose not to reply, as replying would require more breathing, which meant a higher number of germs inhaled. He wasn't normally this paranoid, but with the Kantou tournament just around the corner, he figured it was better to be safe than sorry.

She shrugged. If he didn't want to reply, that was his business. After all, she had more urgent things to take care of, such as the sneeze that was threatening to come anytime now…

"AT-CHOO! Sumimasen…"

--------------------------------

_So how was it? Review, ne?_


	5. Chapter 5

_Chapter five is here... hope you all like it!_

**Chapter 5**

"A dinner?!"

"Yes, dear," Her mother answered her. "It's a dinner with your father's old classmate."

"A _dinner_?!"

This was starting to get a little repetitive. "Maika, stop repeating yourself and go get ready. We're going shopping."

"Shopping?! Whatever for?"

Her mother gave her an exasperated look.

"You can't go to the dinner dressed like that." She indicated Maika's rather too casual outfit. "We'll shop around for a nice dress for you and maybe some accessories to go with it."

"A _dress_?!" She could hardly believe her ears. "You expect _me _to wear a _dress_ for some dinner with Tou-san's ex-classmate?"

"Stop arguing and just do as I say," Her mother told her. "You don't want to disgrace our family name, do you?"

That effectively silenced all arguments she could have made. _Unbelievable…_

"Yes, kaa-san."

------------------------------------------

"You look so lovely!" Her mother cooed. "Turn around…"

She turned obediently, feeling much like an overdressed fashion plate. _I mean, who in their right mind wears a cocktail dress to a dinner with an ex-classmate?!!_ And it wasn't even her classmate.

She looked in the mirror, still not quite able to get used to her reflection. After all, it wasn't everyday she saw herself in a strapless, back-baring, clingy black dress with a small "tote" to match. She snorted. Seriously! The bag was so miniscule, she'd be amazed if a nail clipper could fit inside it.

Not to mention the earrings which tinkled every time she moved her head. It was extremely irritating and unnatural to hear yourself jingle when you shook your head. At least she managed to beg off wearing a necklace, she reflected. Those were so _itchy_ and uncomfortable, and she'd probably be fiddling with it the whole dinner.

Which, of course, brought her back to the question of why they were even dressing up for something as simple as a dinner. If she had a choice in this, she'd probably just go _without_ all this fuss. But she was not about to be accused of letting down the family's name, and hence the superbly overdone get-up.

"Maika! Let's go!" She sighed, and resigned herself to an evening of utter boredom.

-------------------------------------

As a servant opened the car door for her, she wondered just _who_ her father's ex-classmate was. Even the architecture of his house made her feel severely underdressed – she hadn't thought that was possible. She ascended the steps behind her parents, feeling very out of place.

The inside of the house was no less grand than the exterior. The sparkling chandeliers that overhung the huge gallery were intimidating, to say the least. By the time the gracious host invited them oh-so-cordially to be seated, she was quite bedazzled by all the sights she had just taken in.

She tuned in to what he was saying, remembering that she had to be alert and polite always.

"…my son will be joining us in a few minutes. He and your daughter should get along quite well. They are of the same age, I believe."

She looked at her genial host. So she was supposed to spend the whole evening with a boy whom she didn't even know?

_Great. Just great… _She was still registering this information when the sound of footsteps made her look up at the grandiose stairs.

"_Atobe?!_"

------------------------------

The grey-haired boy had been told that their guests had a very pretty daughter whom he could mix well with. So when he came down the stairs, his first impression was that his parents had indeed been correct.

But the hazel eyes which peeked out demurely from under long lashes were disturbingly familiar, and the voice even more so.

Recognition dropped on him like a bomb.

"_You!!_"

----------------------------------

This was very bad. Very, _very _bad.

They made it into the dining hall with some semblance of civility, thanks to the restraining presence of the grown-ups. The seating positions, however, placed them across from one another, and a fair game of kicking shins was soon going on.

Atobe kicked too hard.

"_Ow!!!_"

Her parents looked at her, and she realized that if she didn't come up with something soon, she was going to be lectured all the way home.

"Sorry… accidentally stubbed my toe…"

She got a stern glare, but that was about it. As soon as the conversation started again, she turned her attention back to Atobe. Kicking him doubly as hard would rather make up for it, she decided.

The expression on his face was a queer mix between agony and fury. She'd pay for this, he'd make sure of it…

-------------------------------------

After dinner, the children were told, in no uncertain terms, to entertain themselves. Right on cue, they both bowed and excused themselves politely from the dinner table. Fortunately, they had the sense to wait until they got out of the dining room before announcing an all-out declaration of war.

"You didn't have to kick me _that_ hard!"

Maika looked at him. "_Me_? Kick _you_? If I recall correctly, you were the one who started all this!"

Atobe smirked. "Ore-sama would never do such a thing."

She gave up trying to win the pointless argument, and instead plonked herself down onto the nearest armchair. It was then that Atobe realised that they had half the night left to spend in each other's company, and decided that it might be a good idea to just curl up and go to sleep. At least that way they could preserve some of the furniture.

Unfortunately, she happened to be sitting on his favourite armchair. _The_ armchair he always lounged on. And being who he was, he would never settle for anything less than the best.

So, with all the decency he could muster, he asked her, "Could you get up?"

She did not reply.

He gritted his teeth. "I am _not_ saying please."

As he half-expected, the only answer he got was point-blank silence.

He wanted that sofa, and he wanted it _now_.

"This is my house! _MY_ house, do you hear? Now get out of that armchair once and for all!"

Maika stirred sleepily.

"Who are you shouting at?"

-------------------------------------

After that little misunderstanding, which soon cleared up into a nice, vicious catfight, they finally agreed to a truce. Atobe was more than a little disgruntled at having being caught talking to himself, and Maika was just plain grumpy from being woken up, albeit rather rudely. To make matters worse, Atobe absolutely refused to apologise, and Maika saw no reason why she should either. They were indeed two extraordinarily stubborm people.

So it was only when a maid came to tell them that they could be heard all over the house and perhaps they might want to lower the volume a little that they managed to return to some semblance of civility. Of course, that particular maid's opinion of Atobe would probably never be the same again. Neither would yours if you had just walked in to find your gentlemanly master trying to claw a young lady's eyes out, both of them snarling and spitting like two very riled up cats.

_Definitely_ not the same again.

-----------------------------------

It was an eternity before Maika's parents finally made a move to go home. She had managed to fall asleep twice in that duration, embarrassed herself once and fought with Atobe more times than she could count on one hand.

_I guess I'm just not meant to stay up till three in the morning…_ She thought ironically, stifling a yawn as she bid goodbye to her hosts.

"Do come again," Atobe's mother was smiling.

_Please, no!_

"Definitely," Her own mother replied. "Perhaps next time at our house instead?"

"Arigatou gozaimasu."

_Shit._

-----------------------------------

On the way back in the car, she eavesdropped on her parents' conversation (after all, she couldn't help but hear anyway – they were in such an enclosed space) and soon suspected that her mother, at least, had imbibed more sake than was good for her.

"That boy is so nice," Her mother said. "He'd make such a good playmate for Maika."

"_What_?!"

Her mother frowned slightly. "Maika, you really ought to learn how to tone it down a little. I was just saying that Atobe Keigo is such a well-mannered young gentleman. Don't you agree?"

There was a slight gagging from behind. "Are you _serious_?"

But her mother wasn't listening to her. "You really should mix around with him more. Who knows, he might even rub off on you…"

She could only hope that her mother would have too much of a hangover tomorrow to remember anything about this.

_Dear God… please…_

------------------------------------

Neither of her parents were up yet by the time she set off for school, so she simply left a note to say that she would be in school. To tell the truth, she wasn't all that eager to go either, but she had a particularly important subject that day, and so she forced herself out of bed.

Three hours of sleep did absolutely nothing to improve her appearance, as proven by the dark rings shadowing her eyes.

_I'm so sleepy…_

It was by sheer willpower that she managed to stay awake long enough to get to her desk in class.

--------------------------------

Tezuka looked up in time to see Maika stagger in. One look at her was enough to know that she had obviously spent the night late.

He frowned. Staying out until late at night was a bad habit, and if she was silly enough to do so, then she would have to bear the consequences, obviously. He shrugged, and turned back to his work.

When classes started, Maika was hard pressed to keep her eyes open.

"Tezuka, slap me." Thoroughly sleepy by now, she was resorting to the last means she had to keep awake.

He looked at her as if she was crazy.

"Please?"

"No." He would not slap a _girl_.

"Oh, fine!" She slapped herself, trying to hit as hard as she could and accidentally kicking the table in the process.

"Ow! That hurts!" _It hurts even worse, thanks to that smartass who kicked me last night…_ She examined her leg, and was a little alarmed to see a big, purple bruise swelling there. "If I ever get my hands on him…"

Tezuka was interested, despite himself. Maika didn't seem like the jealous girlfriend type, after all. "Who?"

"That Atobe… kicking me till I'm black and blue…"

Tezuka was very rarely taken aback, and this was one of the few times he was.

"_Atobe Keigo_? _Kicking_ you?" Somehow, these two words had a hard time connecting themselves together in his brain.

"Yeah… at two in the morning…" She rolled her eyes. "And my mum wants me to – "

But Tezuka's brain had stopped working at her last sentence. "Two… in the… _morning_?!"

She looked at him for a long minute, before suddenly realising how her sentence could have been misinterpreted, and coloured at just what Tezuka must be thinking.

"No, it's nothing like that… nothing like that at all…" She was speaking very rapidly, all hot and flustered. "His father invited us over for dinner, and it lasted till three in the morning… that's all…"

"Oh." Only the slightest twitch of his eyebrow betrayed what he had been thinking moments before.

"And can you believe it? My mum wants me to _mix_ more with him! I mean, he's even worse than you!"

"…"

"…that didn't come out quite right, did it?"

With a perfectly straight face, Tezuka replied, "I would say not."

----------------------------

Atobe, meanwhile, was having an absolutely peachy time thinking up the most gruesome ways to get revenge on Maika. After all, she was the one who had caused his new suit to have blackberry stains all over, thanks to the glass of juice she had been holding when yet another of their quarrels broke out.

"Atobe-sama, it's dinnertime."

He contented himself with the thought that when he next saw her, it would be _her_ furniture that would be torn to shreds. Paying ten thousand yen to replace that sofa was definitely _not_ his idea of spending money wisely.

------------------------------------------

_So how was it? Review, ne? _

_And to all Chinese out there - Gong Xi Fa Cai!_


	6. Chapter 6

_Sixth chapter here, and yes, I'll try to work on my sense of direction... meanwhile just bear with me, 'kay? Beta-ed by shirlynn - thanks so very much! Ja, read on!_

**Chapter 6**

Tezuka frowned at his book, his brows furrowing in concentration as he tried to absorb all the knowledge contained on that page. Maika, seeing how focused he was, curiously leaned over to peek over his shoulder, and quite nearly died laughing.

"The _reproductive_ system?!!"

He looked up to see her convulsed in fits of laughter, and his frown became a whole lot more pronounced.

"It's in the syllabus," He replied curtly.

"But - the - _reproductive_ - system!"

He gave her a disapproving look. "I like to keep ahead of my classes," was all the explanation he gave before turning back to his book.

Maika barely managed to keep a straight face the next time she saw Tezuka reading a book.

--------------------------------------------

"Class, today we will be looking at Chapter 4. Please open your books to page 56."

There was a rustling of papers all around the class before a moment of complete, shell-shocked silence as the whole class stared at the page. Maika was the first to break it.

"Oh-h-h..." She looked at Tezuka.

"You will be presenting this in pairs, that is, with your seating partner."

She looked at Tezuka, and Tezuka stared back at her.

_Shucks..._

The teacher was giving out the topics, and without further ado, sensei graciously told them theirs.

"Ah, Tezuka-kun. Could you present the scientific explanation from the moment of penetration to the Fallopian tube? From there," The teacher moved on to the pair behind them. "Kiyato-san and Karu-kun will take over."

_What?!_

There was a short, uncomfortable pause.

"Uh... do you really need any help on that, Tezuka?"

"It's pair work." He told her up front, secretly amused at how she was trying to weasel out of it. "Unless I do all the research, and you present it to the class."

She turned a rather striking green. "Thanks, but I'll pass."

He shrugged, and was about to turn back to his book when she interrupted him once again. "When is this due?"

The teacher heard her, and answered her question for the whole class. "Ah, yes! The presentation will be the next Science period, which is.." There was a small pause as she checked her timetable. "Day after tomorrow."

"_What?!_"

--------------------------------------

"We need to work on that Science project, but my mum will be having visitors over today. So..." She left it hanging.

He sighed. "My house, then. Three pm _sharp_."

"Oh, okay." She walked away, leaving him to ponder just how much he disliked bringing guests home.

------------------------------------------

She had noticed the stress he put on 'sharp', and was there at _exactly_ three in the afternoon. As she waited for someone to answer the doorbell, she looked around. His house was really quite nice. A bit on the small side, but otherwise very much more cosy than her own home.

A middle-aged woman opened the door. "Yes?"

"A-ah, konbanwa! I'm looking for Tezuka-kun."

"Just hold on a second." The lady went back in.

Moments later, Tezuka appeared in front of the door. "Aa. Come in."

Unfazed by the cold greeting, she stepped in. The interior of the house only served to confim her first impression of the house. _Definitely homey and cozy... I wonder how it would be like to live in such a place..._

He walked straight to his room, which apparently doubled up as his study room. When she entered his bedroom, she was struck by the sudden sparseness and neatness of his room. _What a paradox..._

Maika seated herself on the bed, which was the only other place to sit besides the chair which Tezuka had so obviously been occupying moments ago.

He handed her the encyclopedia, and she nearly staggered under the weight.

"Oof! It's heavy!" She plonked the book down on his bed. "What do I look under?"

"Human reproduction." he answered shortly before taking out a similar-sized reference book.

She flipped through the pages, idly looking at the various articles printed in the book unil she came to the correct page.

_Human reproduction, eh?_ She flopped over to lie on her stomach before starting to read the article. She read until the halfway mark before suddenly emitting a strangled noise like a dying cat.

Tezuka looked at her questioningly.

"They actually _described_ it!!!"

He gave her a strange look. "That's the whole point, isn't it?"

"But... in _detail_?!"

--------------------------------

"List down all the important points," He handed her a sheet of paper and a pen. "We'll write it out in marker later on."

His mother came in, bearing a tray of drinks. "Here, have some."

He accepted the cup with a short thank you, and Maika did the same.

"I'm so happy Kunimitsu finally found a girl to suit his taste." She beamed brightly at both of them. "Such a well-mannered and polite girl, too!"

Tezuka choked on his cherry juice, and Maika was suddenly seized with a violent coughing fit.

"Kaa-san," Tezuka said, having been the first to recover. "She's not my... _girlfriend_." He had a little trouble getting that word out.

"Don't worry, Kunimitsu. Your father won't mind. In fact, I think he'd be very pleased with your choice." Aside to Maika, she whispered, "Don't mind him. I know he's a little shy sometimes..."

"But - "

"But nothing, dear. Just drink up, and enjoy yourselves!" Tezuka's mother exited with a wink, closing the door pointedly behind her.

There was an awkward silence.

"Well, back to reproduction."

And for once in her life, Maika was actually eager to study science.

----------------------------------------

She stood in front of the class, her face burning as she tried to explain the mechanism by which babies were produced.

"So the sperm," That word alone was enough to make her wish the ground would swallow her up, "swims through the cervix, and all the way to the Fallopian tube. If it does not reach the egg, it will die within forty-eight hours of ejaculation."

Tezuka simply looked on, rather amused at the scarlet colour of her face. Who knew that she was such a conservative about such things?

_Flashback_

_"T-tezuka... I really think you should do this by yourself..." She stammered._

_He took the proffered paper and scanned through it. "Why? You seem to have done quite a thorough job."_

_"I'm just not... comfortable talking about this..." She was turning a rather sickly green. The thought of presenting the whole thing to the class was just too much to handle, apparently._

_"Toilet!"_

_At Tezuka's inquiring glance, she repeated herself. "I - need - the - toilet!"_

_She rushed to the door he pointed at, and sounds of retching were soon issuing from the open door. He walked over and leaned against the doorframe, looking at her._

_"I suppose becoming a doctor is not one of your highly-sought after ambitions," was his only observation._

_He was darned right._

_End flashback_

She sank into her seat gratefully, greatly relieved that the whole ordeal was over. She would never, _ever_ give a presentation on such a topic again. Not even if the teacher threatened her with knives and a slow roasting over the furnace.

She was startled from her reflections as Tezuka slid into the seat next to her.

"You baka! You left me to explain all the difficult parts!" She fumed at him.

He looked at her and replied calmly, as was his wont, "I did not see any need to step in. You were handling it quite well by yourself."

If they hadn't been in class under the teacher's eagle eye, he would have found himself on the receiving end of a resounding slap. Sometimes she wondered if there was a gene in the Y chromosome that caused an individual to grow into a mule-headed, recalcitrant, stiff-necked and totally annoying boy. It would explain a _lot _of things.

------------------------------------------

_So how was it? Review, ne?_


	7. Chapter 7

_This is Chapter Seven, and it's a little disconnected at parts, because I wrote it in parts. So sue me. _

_Ja, read on!_

**Chapter 7**

"An excursion to the mall?"

"Well, it's not like you have anything better to do, right?"

She made a face at her mother. "With who?"

"That nice boy, Atobe-san's son…" Her mother did not even have time to finish the sentence before Maika interrupted her.

"I have a – a project to work on! Yes, a project!" She laughed nervously. "I'm going now! Itte kimasu!"

"But you haven't finished your – " It was too late. Maika was already out of the door.

Her mother sat down, shaking her head. "She didn't even finish her breakfast…"

--------------------------------------------------

_Mom's seriously crazy…_

Maika made sure she was a safe distance away from her house before she stopped running. Panting heavily, she made her way to a nearby bench to rest.

She looked at the houses and the park she was currently at for a long minute before realization dawned on her.

"Whoops… I think I'm lost…"

------------------------------------------------------

But she was not one to give up, and she started to trek back the way she came. She was doing just fine until she came to an intersection.

"I'm fairly sure I came this way…" She turned left and continued on the road.

It was not until she came to a crossroad she had never seen before in her entire life before that she began to get really worried.

"Uh… should I turn left or right, or should I just go back?"

She opted to go back. Retracing her steps took a little more effort and concentration, and when the first raindrops started to fall, whatever shreds of patience she had left rapidly evaporated.

"I _give up!!!_"

She felt a lot better after shouting that, but soon sobered up. There was still the tiny question of how she was going to get home, and the more immediate worry of getting utterly drenched.

She decided to address the more pressing matter of the rain first, and hastily made her way to a nearby phone booth.

_Ha! I can call home from here! Why didn't I think of that before?_

She smacked herself on the forehead before rummaging about in her pockets to find some coins. Finally a coin turned up, and she inserted it into the slot, waiting for someone to pick up the other end of the line.

She listened impatiently to the dial tone, drumming her fingers on the phone in time to the rhythm of the falling rain. _Just hurry up and pick it up, will you?_

"The number you have called is not available. Please try – "

She put down the phone, cursing inwardly. Not only had she failed to get her parents on the line, the stupid machine even had the audacity to eat up her money! Sheesh!

She kicked the phone for good measure, managing to hurt her leg in the process. She stared forlornly at the raindrops pitter-pattering on the wall of her tiny shelter. Speaking of tiny, it was starting to get a little cramped inside here.

After waiting for approximately three and a half minutes, she finally decided that she'd rather brave the rain than spend the day in that pathetic excuse of a phone booth. She walked out, increasing her pace as the raindrops started to pelt her hard.

She made her way to the nearest house, praying desperately that the occupant would be a kind, friendly sort of person. Taking a deep breath, she pressed the doorbell and resigned herself to her fate.

_Que sera sera…_

Her philosophical train of thought was interrupted by the opening of the door right in her face. She jumped back a little, startled.

"Uh… I'm really sorry to bother you, but do you know where – "

She was rudely stopped by the sound of the door slamming in her face.

"You didn't have to slam it _that_ hard…" She said aloud to the wooden door, before making a face at it. "So much for asking for directions…"

Maika turned to walk away, wondering where she could find someone decent enough to point her the correct way home.

She shivered slightly. The cold was beginning to seep through to her skin, and the unpleasant sensation of wet clothes against almost equally wet skin was disturbing, to say the least. Her mum would have a fit if she saw her now…

Her legs were starting to ache. She didn't doubt that she'd get home eventually, but she'd much rather not stand about in the rain. It was _freezing_.

She walked on, determined to try her luck one more time before she started trying to hail down passing cars instead. Hopefully the next occupant would be somewhat more patient.

"I'm sorry to bother you, but could you please tell me how to get to the public library?" Her house was somewhere near there, and it was a lot less troublesome than having to repeat her whole address.

"Ah." The stranger looked down at her, evidently wondering what she was doing in the rain. "Just keep going straight and turn left at the second junction. You'll be able to see the library from there."

"Thank you!"

She walked off jauntily, now that she knew where to go. Sure enough, after following the man's instructions to the dot, she reached the public library. She knew her way from there.

When she reached home, it was rather quiet, although that was pretty normal. She listened at the door for a moment, trying to make sure that no one would see her bedraggled entrance into the house.

She opened the door as quietly as possible, wincing at the impossibly loud creak it made. Tiptoeing in, she walked lightly to her room. _Just a little more…_ She had almost made it past the hallway when a sudden voice stopped her.

"_Maika?!_"

_Aah… and I was so close!_ She turned slowly. "Yes?"

"What – what have you been _doing_?"

"I went for a walk and got caught in the rain." Uh-huh. As simple as that.

"But why didn't you come home when it started raining?"

"Ehehe…" She smiled sheepishly. "I got… lost…"

"Kami-sama… this girl…" Her mother herded her off. "To the showers! Now!"

--------------------------------------------

"Wake up, Maika! You're going to be late for school!"

She stirred sleepily. "Go away…"

Her mother took a single look at her flushed face and let out a startled cry. "You're sick!"

"Mmf…" She buried her head in the nice, soft pillow. She was so sleepy. Why couldn't they just let her go to sleep?

"What should I do? Should I call the doctor?" Her mother was currently fussing about like a mother hen, greatly alarmed by her daughter's temperature.

"…mom?" Maika opened her eyes, blinking at the bright sunlight that pervaded the room. "Just go to work. I'll be fine."

"But what if you get a fit or an emergency happens?" Her mother was all-out panicking by now.

"I'll go to sleep." Came the dry answer. "Stop worrying, mom. _You're_ going to be late for work."

----------------------------------------------

Meanwhile, Tezuka sat by an empty seat at school, and he couldn't help wondering what had happened to Maika. She had looked perfectly well yesterday, so she couldn't be sick…

"Tezuka-kun?"

He looked up at the teacher.

"Can you please make sure that Tawako-san gets her homework and passes it up when she comes back to school?"

_Why is it always me? _

"Hai, sensei."

---------------------------------------------

The sound of the doorbell ringing cut through the air, disturbing the peaceful silence in the house.

"Eesh…" Maika finally bestirred herself to get off the bed. She shouldn't have been sleeping at such a late hour, but her body seemed to get tired very easily today…

She opened the door and quite unceremoniously asked, "What do you – _Tezuka_?! What are you doing here?"

"Maika." His eyes had widened slightly at her crimson cheeks, but his expressionless face was back in the blink of an eye.

"Do come in!" She invited.

Tezuka did not feel very comfortable going into another individual's house, and a girl's one at that. But he was here with a responsibility. And Tezuka Kunimitsu never shirked his duty.

He stepped in without a single sign that it was possibly one of the most historic events in his entire life. He could just imagine what his grandfather would say. _Stepping into a girl's house! Preposterous!_

_Duty calls._ He thought dryly, and let himself be led to the sofa. "Why didn't you come to school?"

She pointed vaguely to herself. "Sick."

"From…?"

"Got caught in the rain yesterday. I got lost two streets away from here." She grinned sheepishly.

"Hn." How someone could manage to lose themselves in the vicinity of two kilometres of their own house was beyond him.

Well, anyway. Back to business.

"Homework." He gave her the pile of books.

She looked at it, dismay colouring her face. "So much?"

He shrugged. "I've finished it." His tone suggested that she, too, should be as diligent as him and therefore be able to finish it.

"You're inhuman." She retorted. "English is page eight to…?"

"Ten." He said, choosing to ignore her remark on his apparent inhumanity.

"Okay… Maths?" She scribbled it down on a piece of paper, letting out a huge yawn. "I'm sorry… I'm rather sleepy…"

"Page twelve, questions one to twenty." He certainly hoped she didn't fall asleep on _him_. That would be troublesome.

"Yeah… Science?"

Her eyelids were getting heavier. He could positively _see_ it.

"Pages six to ten." He spoke rapidly. "And History, chapter two, all the objective questions."

"Nothing else?" She asked.

He gave a small shake of his head. As he rose to go, he asked, "Will you be coming tomorrow?"

_Now why did I ask that?_

"Probably, yes." She yawned. "Unless I'm admitted to the hospital."

He frowned at her cheeky wink. "Don't be silly."

As he stepped out of the house, he looked at her. "Don't do anything stupid."

"Since when did I ever do anything stupid?" She snorted. "Have a nice day."

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_Okay, I admit it. I crapped my way through this chapter. TT The lack of ideas simply drove me nuts, so this was the result._

_Review, ne?_


	8. Chapter 8

_Chapter eight... hopefully better than the previous one? Ja, read on!_

**Chapter 8**

Tezuka sighed, casting an involuntary glance at the empty place next to him. Where was that girl? She had _promised_ to come today. Then why wasn't she here?

His head was starting to hurt.

_The incident that caused World War I was the assassination of some guy in Austria… a bishop, I think… yes, definitely a bishop… what was it again? Archduke… Archduke Franz… something…_

He groaned. If he managed to fail his history test, it would be all her fault.

_Gavrilo Princip shot Archduke Franz… whatever-his-name-was and triggered the war which soon escalated into a full-scale war… Where is she? _

This was so _not_ working.

--------------------------------------------

"Don't worry, Mom, I'll be alright!" She felt she must have said that at least a hundred times by now. "Didn't you hear what the doctor said? I just have to go for this operation and poof! Everything's as good as new!"

Her mother was still not convinced, by the look on her face. "First you go and get a fever, then now this horrible… appendicy-thingy… oh, Maika! Why can't you take better care of yourself?"

"Here," She handed her mother a tissue, who promptly blew her nose into it. "Mom, I didn't have _anything_ to do with getting appendicitis, and you know it. Anyway, it's just a one-off thing. Look on the bright side: If I have my appendix removed now, I won't ever be in danger of getting appendicitis again! See?"

All she got was a sniffle in reply.

"Madam, your daughter needs to go to the operating theatre now." The nurses began wheeling her towards the lift.

"Don't worry, mom!" She called out. "I'll be alright!"

_I hope…_

--------------------------------------------

Voices, around her, rising and falling in harmony. She strained to catch the words, but they remained indistinguishable sounds.

_I'm so sleepy…_

The world of slumber claimed her once again, and she floated off to dreamland.

------------------------------------------

"When will she wake up?"

"The anaesthetic should wear off soon."

She stirred groggily, blinking rapidly at the bright afternoon sunlight that filtered in through the curtains.

_Wait… afternoon?! I'm late for school!_

She tried to sit up, and immediately let out a yell of pain. "That hurts!"

"Maika, you're awake!" Her mother sounded as if she could hardly believe it. "You're alive!"

She rolled her eyes, now remembering that she was in the hospital. "Yes, mom. I'm _alive_. How long have I been sleeping?"

Her mother checked her watch.

"Almost the whole day, I should say." Now that Maika was safe, a bit of her former briskness was beginning to return to her. "Shouldn't you go shower?"

Maika started to stand up, and immediately sat back down again. Her face was a little pale. "I don't think I want to shower yet…"

_My stomach hurts like crazy! It's even worse than before the operation! Don't tell me…_ Her eyes widened. _…they forgot to take it out and my appendix has ruptured?!_

"**DOCTOR**!"

------------------------------------------------------

Tezuka waited, albeit a little impatiently, for someone to answer the doorbell. She couldn't still be sick, could she? He frowned, running over the list of reasons why she hadn't attended class today.

"Ah…" A middle-aged man opened the door, obviously not quite sure what to say to this young man who had just rung the doorbell. "Hello."

"Konnichiwa." He bowed slightly. "Is Maika in?"

Her father, as he surmised, looked slightly surprised. "No, as a matter of fact, she's not in."

He did not say anything, but his question was plain enough.

"She's in the hospital."

To say that Tezuka got the shock of his life was an understatement. "She's in the… _hospital_?!"

"Yes, the doctor's operating to remove her inflamed appendix."

"A-ah. Arigatou." Still feeling slightly dazed, he bowed once more and slowly made his way out, his thoughts in a mess.

_She's in the hospital? With appendicitis? It's not serious, right? RIGHT?_

He turned back. "Sumimasen, what ward is she in?"

"Ward C, if I'm not mistaken." Her father was rather bemused. Who _was_ this young man who turned up at the door asking for his daughter, of all people?

"Domo." Tezuka excused himself, and went home to look up 'appendicitis' in the encyclopaedia.

-------------------------------------

"Maika, Atobe-san and her son are here to visit you."

Maika sat up, blinking sleepily. "Atobe?"

"Yes. Now sit up and make yourself presentable."

She obediently smoothed down her hair, and got under the blankets. In no time at all, she looked exactly like a sick invalid.

"Perfect!" Her mother exclaimed delightedly.

A series of knocks soon sounded on the door, and it opened to reveal the one and only Atobe Keigo and his mother.

"Konnichiwa…" She pasted a polite smile onto her face.

"Konnichiwa, Maika-chan," Atobe's mother smiled at her. "How are you feeling?"

"Fine, thank you." The atmosphere was starting to get a little stifling. Then a brainwave hit her.

"Kaa-san, why don't you go shopping with Atobe-san and catch up with each other over a cup of tea? You really don't have to accompany me, you know."

Atobe's mother brightened visibly. "Yes, why don't we?"

"I don't know…" Maika's mother said doubtfully.

"Keigo can take care of her, ne?"

_Whoops… I hadn't foreseen that…_

"Shall we?"

And the two mothers walked off arm-in-arm, leaving Maika and Atobe staring at each other.

There was an awkward pause.

"So how are you?" Atobe broke the silence.

"A little tired. It's still rather painful, especially when I move." Maika wiggled to prove her point, and almost immediately regretted doing so. The wave of pain that washed over her was excruciatingly painful.

"Baka!" He admonished her. "Are you trying to kill yourself? Oh, and before I forget…"

"Your… chocolates…" He handed her a gift-wrapped box, looking extremely uncomfortable.

"_Chocolates?!_" She could hardly believe her ears. Atobe Keigo bought _chocolates_ for her?

"My mother made me buy them," He muttered.

That explained it. "Well, thank you anyway."

He broke into a smile, and was just about to say something when she cut him off. "Are you _patronising_ me, Atobe Keigo?"

"Wha - !" He sputtered. "No!"

"Oh, really?" She arched an eyebrow. "Then why is it that I get this sneaking suspicion that you're being nice to heap burning coals on my head?"

"Now that you mention it, it _is_ a rather attractive side benefit…" He grinned mischievously at her.

His smirk was soon wiped off when Maika bonked him on the head with her pillow. "_Ow!_" He glared at her. "What was that for?"

"For sassing me," She replied coolly, before proceeding to whack him thoroughly with her ready-made weapon without moving from her seated position on the bed. After all, he _was_ quite conveniently located by her bedside…

_And I can't even hit back because she's sick! Aargh!_ He shot her a death glare, hopping out of the way as her pillow clipped him on the shoulder. "You're gonna pay for this later…"

She looked at him, eyes innocently wide. "Who, me? What did I do?"

His conscience decided there and then that there was a limit to chivalry, and she had just exceeded it. He grabbed her bolster, and the rest was history.

---------------------------------

Tezuka looked at the sleeping form on the bed. Brown ringlets were spread messily on the pillow, a few stray curls spilling onto her cheek. Her lips were slightly turned up in a smile, giving the impression that she was laughing in her sleep. He felt an involuntary surge of protectiveness, and had to remind himself that this was Maika – as in, Tawako Kamaika, the spitfire. But he couldn't help but think that she looked very different in her sleep. She looked so… _vulnerable_.

Her eyelids fluttered open, and the illusion was broken.

"Tezuka?!"

--------------------------------------

_So sleepy…_

She opened her eyes groggily, only to discern a well-known figure standing in front of her.

"Tezuka?!"

He merely inclined his head.

"How did you know I was in the hospital?" She queried, sitting up.

"Your father," He replied shortly. "Here's your homework."

She looked distastefully at the pile of books on her table. "Mou, Tezuka, I'm _sick_! Can't I be excused from doing homework?"

"No." Came the immovable reply.

"Just this once?" She pleaded.

"No." He said. "Besides, your arm and your brain shouldn't be affected by your appendicitis. I know your mouth certainly hasn't."

She made a face at him. "You don't have to be nasty about it…" She pouted childishly, but accepted the proffered books.

"So what's been happening at school?"

He slid into the chair she indicated. "Nothing."

"Short, concise, and utterly too general. Typical." She remarked. "Elaborate, please."

He thought of the numerous girls who had attempted to take over Maika's place, without success.

"Nothing much," He amended. "Just a few girls who wanted to sit at your desk during your absenteeism."

"Really?" She sat up straight, wincing a little as her stomach muscles twinged. "Who? What happened?"

"I can't remember their names," He shrugged. "They… decided that they liked their original seat better."

That was one way to put it. The fight for Maika's place had gone on for quite some time, the victor always being dethroned in a matter of minutes. It was extremely annoying, to say the least. The next day, he had simply placed his bag in the seat next to him.

It did work… or maybe it was the fact that he sent death glares at anyone who tried to sit there. He'd have ordered them to run laps, but they weren't in the tennis club, unfortunately. At any rate, he was exceedingly grateful for the fact that it actually worked, because having a girl disturbing him every five seconds and clinging onto him was definitely _not_ conducive for studying.

"Want some chocolates?"

He looked up. "No thanks," He answered automatically. He looked closer, and realized it was a very expensive brand of chocolates.

"You bought it?" The question was out of his mouth before he could stop it.

Maika looked up. "The chocolates? Nope, Atobe gave them to me."

Tezuka was acutely aware of a sudden white-hot surge that threatened to take hold of him, but he told himself that it was perfectly unreasonable to feel that way and simply quashed it, not even bothering to give it a name.

"He came?" But he could not keep the slight edge out of his voice.

She did not notice it, fortunately for him. "Just now. And thanks to him, my back is now officially the sorest part of my body."

He frowned. "Why?" Surely Atobe wouldn't hit a girl, especially when she was sick? _No, not even he would have done that…_

"Pillow fight," She said dismissively.

He barely managed to keep his jaw from dropping. "He… _hit_ you?"

She smiled sheepishly. "I hit him first…"

"He shouldn't have." Tezuka's voice was decisively harsh.

"Oh, don't worry about it…" She said hurriedly, noting that Tezuka's hands were currently balled into fists. "We're always like that."

He didn't like the way she said 'we'. It implied something… more.

"Tezuka?" Maika was looking at him a little strangely. But then again, he deserved it. It wasn't often that you managed to catch the famed captain lost in thought, after all.

"Hn?" He grunted, not very pleased at having been caught at inattention.

"Could you… do me a favour?" Maika asked delicately. "I'm going to be in the hospital for another three days at least, and my homework…" She trailed off meaningfully.

"Ah, yes." A small smirk formed on his face. "Don't worry, I won't bother you with homework anymore. I won't even collect it."

_What?! _

"Tezuka Kunimitsu!" She whacked him soundly on the head. "You had better bring my homework, or else…"

He raised an eyebrow, despite being a little startled at the unfamiliar sensation of getting smacked. "But I thought you didn't _want_ to do your homework?"

"_Tezuka!!_" Why were all the males being extraordinarily smart-alecky today?

Maybe Mars was being a little brat somewhere up there in the universe.

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_So how was it? Better? Review, ne?_


	9. Chapter 9

_Here's chapter nine... Maika's out of the hospital, and almost back to her old self... Read on!_

**Chapter 9**

"Maika-chan!" She turned to see her friend, Kiyato, waving at her.

"Ohayou…" Maika smiled.

"Ne, did you get Tezuka-san a present?" Kiyato was one of the few which did not go utterly crazy at the sight of Tezuka, but nonetheless was still a devoted fan of his.

"A present?! Why? Is it his birthday?"

"His birthday? Have you forgotten what day it is today?"

Maika gave her a blank look. "Today is… the day we do our history test?"

"No!" Kiyato smacked her forehead. "You don't _know_ what day it is? Kami-sama…"

"What day is it?" Maika was beginning to get a little tired of people throwing "Kami-sama"s at her everywhere she went.

"It's Valentine's Day, baka!"

"Oh!" She gaped. "I totally forgot about it!"

Kiyato looked at her friend. "Sometimes you're unbelievable…" She steered a dazed Maika to class. "You'd probably forget your head if it wasn't already attached to you!"

----------------------------------------------------

When Maika got to class, she was not at all prepared for the crowd and noise that met her at the entrance.

"What the - !" She sputtered, as she elbowed and pushed her way to her place. The whole class was filled with screaming girls, and she finally found out the cause for all this madness when she reached her place.

There, sitting calmly in his chair, was Tezuka Kunimitsu, captain of Seigaku's famed tennis team and her seating partner. He looked unfazed by all the attention, which was quite a feat considering he was in constant danger of being hit by a gift landslide, thanks to the precariously teetering pile of presents and chocolates on his desk. Which, incidentally, managed to take up all _her_ desk space too.

"Tezuka." Her voice cut through the screams of the fangirls, and he looked up to see an unsmiling Maika.

"Maika." He wasn't quite sure when he had started addressing her by her first name, but it was a lot less cumbersome than Tawako-san anyway.

"Excuse me," She pushed past a fangirl who was blocking her way, and finally managed to deposit her battered body in her seat. "My desk, Tezuka, _my desk!!!_ How am I going to study?"

He could hardly fail to catch her meaning, but he merely replied, "Later."

"Later?! I'm being asphyxiated by lack of oxygen and all you can say is '_later_'?" The screams were starting to grate on her nerves. "Can't you get rid of them?"

Some of the girls sent death glares her way, but she was past caring.

"They'll go away when the bell rings."

True enough, the rabid crowd was finally shooed back to their respective classes when the bell rang.

Maika stared at the overflowing pile of presents and chocolates and goodness-knows-what else on their adjoining tables. "Well?" She demanded.

He looked at her. "What?"

"What are you going to do with all these?"

"Oh, the janitors will clean it up later."

She was more than shocked. "You're just going to _throw_ all these away?!"

_Thank God I didn't give him a present! How wasteful!_

"Well, what else can I do with them?"

He had a point there, she had to admit. It was a little too much to eat. But then she remembered something.

"But the janitors only start cleaning after school!"

"Yes…" He looked at her strangely. "When else are they supposed to clean?"

She buried her head in her hands. "You do realize, Tezuka, that this – this pile of _thing_ is totally obscuring my visual field? I can't even see the blackboard! Besides the fact that I have no surface to do my..." Her eyes widened. "My history test! Tezuka! Get all these off my table _now!!!_"

"Maika – "

"_Now!_ I need to study, you ninny!"

"Maika – "

"Just do it!"

"_Maika!_"

He finally got her attention. "Yes?"

"Stop it. You're making me nervous."

--------------------------------------

"Class, your history test today…" _This is it… this is it… I'm doomed…_

"…will be postponed because the history teacher is down with a bad cold."

"YES!!!" The whole class broke out into cheers. Well, all except one.

"Darn! And I _studied_ so hard for it!" Maika was quite literally on the verge of banging her head on the nearest hard surface.

Tezuka merely looked at her.

"However, he left some homework," There were groans all around the class at this. "Please copy down the questions on the board."

"Um… Tezuka?"

He looked up. "Hn?"

"I can't see the board."

Now _that_ was strange. He could see the board perfectly well.

"I'm _shorter_ than you, okay?" She glared at him.

"Oh." And he proceeded to lower the pile of presents a little. "Better?"

"A little bit more, please."

It was definitely not the sort of normal conversation you'd hear in an everyday classroom scene.

--------------------------------------------

It was a free period, and Maika was amusing herself by randomly selecting gifts and reading them out loud, much to Tezuka's annoyance.

"Oh! This is _priceless_!" She was laughing so hard, it was a miracle she didn't burst. "Listen to this – your beautiful russet orbs glisten in the moonlight, golden tints of your hair reflecting the sunshine – what poetry!"

Then she sobered up. "Hey, Tezuka?" She asked casually. Almost _too_ casually.

"Yes?" He answered, not looking up from his book.

"Look at me."

"?!!!" He was so startled that he actually complied.

She stared at him. "It's true! You do have brown eyes! Why didn't I notice that before?"

"…"

"Saa, what colour are my eyes?" Her next question caught him off guard.

"How should I know? They're _your_ eyes…"

"I know," She explained. "But every time I try to look at them in the mirror, I get all cross-eyed. So could you check for me?"

He gave her a perfunctory glance. "Brown."

"Really?" She seemed a little disappointed. "I'd much rather have blue eyes… what sort of brown are they?"

"What sort?" He frowned.

"You know, like deep, mahogany brown, or hazel brown, or chocolate brown, or – "

He cut her short. "Muddy brown."

There was a minute of silence.

"… muddy brown." She stared at him, and he suddenly felt the hairs on the back of his neck prickle, for no apparent reason at all.

---------------------------------------------

Let us observe a moment of silence for the dearly departed.

---------------------------------------------

Tezuka massaged his temples, letting out a deep sigh. Who knew she was so touchy about such things?

He looked up as she slid into her seat beside him.

"Maika?"

She promptly turned her back on him.

He sighed. This was getting old. "Maika."

There was still no answer.

"Maika." He stated firmly. "Stop sulking and look at me."

She finally deigned to reply. "Don't want to."

"You're acting very childishly."

"Don't care."

Tezuka was _really_ pissed now.

"_Maika._" He growled. "Turn around. _Now._"

The barely veiled threat in his tone made her turn to face him, albeit reluctantly. "What?"

What _had_ he wanted say, anyway? Something about Science, if he wasn't mistaken… Darn it! He had forgotten what he wanted to say! And it was all her fault for being so difficult.

"… Never mind."

"You make such a big fuss just to tell me 'Never mind'?!" Her hands on her hips, she advanced on him.

He backed away just the tiniest bit. He had not, after all, forgotten her volatile temper that had been provoked just a few hours ago – at his expense, unfortunately. "I forgot what I was going – oh! Himada-sensei said he wants you to go for extra coaching for Science later after school."

"Science?! But I got 100 percent!"

"Apparently he has selected you to go for a quiz." Tezuka's expression was unreadable.

She made a face. "Ugh! I hate quizzes! Anyway, you got a perfect score too! Why aren't _you_ going? You can take my place, then."

"…I am."

"You are?! But isn't it individual?"

The dreaded answer came. "Pair work."

"_Not again!!!_"

Sometimes Tezuka had to wonder whether he was really _that_ dislikable.

--------------------------

"The zygote makes its way into the uterus and implants itself there," He pointed to the diagram. "By that time, it has already developed into an embryo. Get it?"

"Yes, I get it," She replied impatiently. "What I don't get is how you get twins."

"_Me_?" He was momentarily stunned by her choice of pronouns. "I don't have twins."

Maika stared at him for a moment before she started laughing uncontrollably.

"Tezuka Kunimitsu!" She gasped. "Of _course_ you don't have twins! You shouldn't even be having chil – " She was laughing too hard by this point to talk coherently.

His cheeks were the faintest shade of pink imaginable. "Then?" He tried to look as dignified as was humanly possible in such an embarrassing situation. "You were the one who said it…"

"But I didn't – " A fit of giggles overtook her again. "I didn't – mean – _you_!"

"…" Tezuka simply had no answer to that.

"You – getting _preg_ – !" She couldn't even finish her sentence.

He took one look at the irrepressibly laughing Maika, the book, and the fact that he had just implied… that _thing_… He repressed a shudder, and thanked God that there had been no one else to see him make a fool of himself, and sat down to find a way he could deal with a immediate problem at hand.

He could always brainwash her, he supposed.

The infectious sound of her laughter broke into his thoughts, and he looked up to see her half-doubled over in mirth.

He cleared his throat. "Shall we continue?"

She wiped the tears from her eyes and turned meekly back to the diagram, but there was a smirk on her face that remained there throughout the rest of the afternoon. And try as he might to ignore it, Tezuka couldn't suppress the faint tinge of pink that had crept into his cheeks till long after the session was over, and they had both gone their separate ways.

It was a memorable day indeed.

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_How was it? Review, ne?_


	10. Chapter 10

_I'm starting to get a bit more of a plotline... just ignore the total lack of plot for the time being, 'kay? Ja, read on!_

**Chapter 10**

"All regulars, gather around!"

Eight blue and white jackets obediently clustered around Ryuuzaki-sensei.

"There is an important announcement that Inui is going to make. Please listen to him."

All heads turned to Inui.

"The tennis team has always been the star on the Christmas tree, to put it colloquially, for Seigaku."

Murmurs of agreement and muted cheers accompanied that statement.

"However, the school authorities have decided to withdraw their funding support, as they plan to renovate the old building behind the field."

There was a sudden flurry of voices.

"What does that mean?"

"Oy! Stop taking the words out of my mouth, mamushi!"

"Che…"

"What's that mean, nya?"

Inui cleared his throat, and everyone stopped talking. "It means that we will have to raise our own funds starting from today."

Eiji and Momo stared at him as if he had just sprouted two heads. "Raise funds?" They said in unison.

"Yes. Ryuuzaki-sensei and I have discussed it, and we are going to…" Inui looked up, and Tezuka suddenly got a bad feeling about this. "…stage a play."

A very, _very_ bad feeling.

"_WHAT?!!_"

--------------------------------------

Today was quite possibly the worst day in his entire life. Whichever idiot who had had the brilliant idea of putting up a _play_ was definitely going to get it from him.

Which meant that Inui was going to be running many, _many_ laps.

But Ryuuzaki-sensei had approved the idea, and there was nothing he could do to change it. He sighed, and tuned back into the ongoing discussion.

"…and we don't have the expertise to do such a thing." Oishi was saying.

Ryuuzaki-sensei looked at them. "Well, then don't just sit there – _find_ someone who can!"

The frown lines on his forehead were more pronounced than ever. But it was the next sentence that did it for him.

"Ah, Tezuka! Why don't you ask Maika-chan?"

"_Maika?!_"

"She's done this before in her previous school – and she did a great job of it, too! It was a brilliant success, if I recall correctly."

_Please God, no…_

------------------------------------

Tezuka had already played out their conversation in his head. He'd ask her, and she'd be surprised and the next thing he knew, she'd be complaining about having to spend more time in his company.

_That girl can really talk the hind leg off a donkey…_

He shot a sideways glance towards said girl, who was currently working away at some Maths questions. His gaze wandered to her exercise book, and he would always swear that the next sentence which came out of his mouth was _not_ what he meant to say.

"You're terrible at Maths."

The moment she looked at him, he knew he was dead meat.

-------------------------------------

"I know you're _brilliant_ at Maths, Mr. Perfect, but some of us aren't born geniuses like you! That doesn't mean you can just go about criticizing our abilities, you know! Idiot!" She fumed, blissfully unaware that she had just called him perfect and an idiot in the same breath.

He had learnt from experience that it was best not to interrupt her when she was in the middle of one of her tirades.

"Just you wait… I'll find something that you're not good at, and I'll beat you to the ground!"

"I highly doubt it."

What was wrong with his mouth today? It seemed determined to get him annihilated in the shortest time possible. He thought for a moment, and decided that the best way to get his mouth to stop committing suicide was to occupy it.

"Maika, can you – "

"No!"

"What?"

"I said no! Didn't you hear me?"

"But I hadn't even finished my question!" He protested.

"I don't need to hear it!" She declared imperiously. "It's still a no."

"But – "

"_No._"

He gave up at that point.

-----------------------------------

"But we _need_ her, Tezuka! She's extremely musical! And she's not _that_ difficult to persuade…"

Tezuka had to stifle a snort at that.

Ryuuzaki-sensei sighed. "Fuji, could you…?"

"Sure." The tensai smiled. "Just leave it to me."

-----------------------------

"Maika-chan – "

"Whatever you want, Tezuka, it's a no. I've already told you a dozen times." She did not even look up from her book.

Fuji had to stifle a chuckle at that. Tezuka hadn't even managed to explain about the musical? How like him.

"What if I wanted to know if – "

"No."

" – you like Tezuka."

"_What?!!_" She started violently. "Oh, it's _you_, Fuji-kun."

"Well? Do you?"

"Do I what?"

"Like Tezuka."

The response was almost instantaneous. "_NO!!!_"

Fuji laughed. "I'm sure Tezuka would be gratified to hear that. Anyway, I just came to ask if you'd like to be involved in producing a play."

"A play?" She inquired curiously. "What's it for?"

"It's to raise funds for the tennis club. None of the regulars have had any experience in the performing arts, so we were wondering if you could help…"

"What kind of play is it?"

Fuji smiled sheepishly. "We were sort of hoping you'd tell us that…"

--------------------------------

Tezuka frowned slightly. Why had she agreed so fast when Fuji broached the subject? She didn't even wait to hear _him_ out before she said no.

And now she was here - as the director. Of all things to be, she had to be the _director_.

"So what are we going to do?" Maika looked around the table.

"Do you want something classic, like 'Cinderella'," there were gagging sounds at this, "…or something less well-known like 'The Abominable Snowman'?"

"Oh, surely a fairytale…" Fuji said. "After all, we wouldn't want to let Tezuka hog all the limelight in the 'Abominable Snowman', would we?"

Tezuka gave him a glare that promised him a hundred laps when they got out of here.

"Okay. So that means that we'll have to rope in the rest of the students - which shouldn't be a problem, seeing your celebrity status…" She scribbled something down on a small piece of paper, and Tezuka made a mental bet with himself that she'd probably misplace it by tomorrow. "…so all we need to do are the auditions. All of you are acting, I suppose?"

"_NO!!!_" Came the vehement reply.

"I just need to put your names in the cast list." She looked up. "Who's the most popular in the club?"

"Buchou," Ryoma pointed out almost immediately, and Tezuka added him to his growing list of people to run extra laps.

"Hmm…" She tapped her pencil lightly, frowning at the paper in front of her. "I guess we could fit you in as a footman or something…"

"He's not going to be the prince?" Eiji exclaimed.

Maika took one look at Tezuka, and burst out laughing, much to his mortification.

"I think – princes – are – supposed – to have – _emotions_!" She gasped out.

He shot her a dirty glare. Was she implying that he didn't have emotions? Well, he was going to prove her wrong.

"Everyone, twenty laps around the court. _Now_."

Anger was a very satisfying emotion indeed.

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_It's short, I know... forgive me, O Great Readers! _

_:P _

_Review, ne?_


	11. Chapter 11

_Heh... I know this is pretty fast updating, but I had time... I hope you don't mind..._

**Chapter 11**

"Two weeks?!" Maika burst out incredulously. "Are you crazy? Even the simplest play takes at least _two months_ to prepare!"

"Two weeks." Came the impassive reply. "Not more than that."

"Let's compromise. One month?"

The answer remained firm. "Two weeks."

"Tezuka, I'm telling you that _nothing_ can be done in just two weeks."

"If you recall," He gave her a pointed look. "This is not the drama club. The Kantou tournament is coming up and we have to practice for it. I will _not_ see the team's performance suffer just because of this play."

She threw up her hands in the air. "Okay, fine! But don't blame me if anything goes wrong."

He snorted. _Everything_ had already gone wrong, anyway. There was nothing left to make it worse.

"Hn."

"Oh, and call your team members for an emergency meeting after school."

"The practice – "

"I don't care if it interferes with your practice or what – just do it!!!" She slammed a hand onto her table to emphasise her point, and stormed out of the room to spend her break somewhere where she would not feel an uncontrollable urge to slap a certain team captain's face every time she so much as looked at him.

_That idiot! Two weeks!_

--------------------------------------

"Okay. All of you are here? Good. Let's start." She looked up at them. "First of all, get it straight that this play is for your tennis club, not for me. The existence of your precious tennis team is hanging in the balance, so all of you had better do what I tell you to do. Got that?"

She was obviously not exactly in the best of moods, owing to Tezuka's uncompromising nature.

"Your beloved team captain here," She shot Tezuka a death glare, "has very _generously_ allowed us to spend two weeks on this play."

"And therefore, for these two weeks, all of you are under me. Is that clear?" She probably sounded like a dictator, but she was beyond caring.

A few reluctant "Hai"s sounded from around the table.

"That includes you, Tezuka." The glare which accompanied the icy voice would have been enough to send other weaker people fleeing for their lives. But Tezuka, being Tezuka, did not even flinch.

"Understood." He said automatically.

She looked back at her notes. "Since we have such a short period of time, I have decided to dispose with the auditions."

"Huh?"

"No auditions?"

Eiji voiced out the question hanging in the air. "Then how're you going to choose the roles in the play, nya?"

She swept a glance around the table, and Tezuka suddenly felt a sinking feeling in his stomach.

"_You_ are going to act in the play."

"What?!"

"No!"

"_Never!!!_"

She brought her hand down on the table hard, making all of them jump. "All of you are to follow my instructions - _without_ question. Understand?"

There was complete and total silence.

"Very well. This is the cast list, and _no_ arguments." She picked up a book and started to read, while all the regulars held their breath.

"Fuji, you'll be Cinderella," There were a few gasps at this – was Fuji-sempai actually going to have to wear a _dress_?!

"Oishi and Eiji – wicked stepsisters," The Golden Pair high-fived each other – _Always together!_

"Kaidoh, you're the wicked stepmother – "

"Nya, Kaidoh's so scary! Protect me, Oishi!" Eiji jumped behind his doubles partner.

"Fsssshh…" He had _known_ this play was a stupid idea from the start.

"Inui - fairy godmother."

Momoshiro had a sudden vision of Inui dressed in frilly pink, holding up a pitcher of vile-looking liquid – _"This is beneficial to your health, my dear child…"_ – and immediately collapsed in a fit of giggles.

"Momoshiro as the footman…" He sobered up long enough to be grateful that his role wasn't too bad, before cracking up again at the apparitions that continued to assail him.

"Nya, that leaves Tezuka-buchou and Ochibi! I wonder who's going to be the prince?"

The room suddenly went quiet.

"Tezuka as the prince…"

"I _knew_ it would be Tezuka-buchou!"

"You're too short, Echizen… maybe if you were a few feet taller you could be the prince…"

"Mada mada dane, Momo-sempai."

Tezuka, for his part, was inwardly cursing Maika – at least, until he heard what Echizen got.

"Echizen, you will be the rat who changes into a horse."

"_WHAT?!!!_"

Suddenly, playing the prince didn't seem so terrible after all.

-------------------------------------

Maika sighed. Just when she thought it couldn't get any worse, it _did_ get worse. With such a ragtag cast, a scene changer who seemed to be all thumbs, and no musicians, the first rehearsal was disastrous, to say the least.

"Nya Fujiko, let's go play!"

She buried her head in her hands. He was supposed to be the evil stepsister, for goodness' sake!

"Eiji, you aren't supposed to be acting nice to Fuji."

"But I can't help it, nya! He's my friend!"

And so it continued.

"Would you like to try my new juice?"

"Mada mada dane."

"Horses aren't supposed to speak, Echizen! And rats don't either…"

"You were a _lizard_ before you became a footman, Momo-sempai. So I suggest you just shut your mouth right now, unless you want to get hit - _hard_."

But the last straw was during the last scene, where the prince was supposed to confess his love to Cinderella.

"My prince, do you really mean it?"

"Hn."

She strode onto the stage, eyes blazing. "_Hn?!_ What kind of confession is that, Tezuka? You're the prince! The main character! Even if you're not putting in any effort, at least try to _look_ as if you are! Even a block of wood could do it better than you!"

The whole stage was shocked into looking at her.

"This is for your _tennis_ team! It's for _you_! _All_ of you! Are you clear? Good! Now _act_ as if you understand!" She stormed out, muttering to herself under her breath. "I don't even know why I bother to waste my time on this… making ridiculous demands and then not putting in a single ounce of effort…"

The team watched her go with a sense of amazement. No one had _ever_ given Tezuka-buchou such a dressing-down before.

All eyes swung to Tezuka.

"Practice is over! Clean up before you go."

And he walked out, back as stiff as a ramrod.

-------------------------------------

She called a meeting the very next day.

"I would like to apologise for storming off like that," were her unexpected first words. "However, I do not think it is unreasonable for me to expect some effort on your part. And therefore, I am asking everyone to work as hard as you can at your role."

She smiled suddenly. "And I've decided to make it a parody."

Observing the blank faces around the table, she elaborated further. "Which means that even if you forget your lines, just say whatever comes to your mind."

There was a sudden babble of noise at this.

"No more lines?!"

"Whatever we want!"

She glanced towards the right of the table where Tezuka sat, unmoving. He had not uttered a single word to her since the beginning of school, and it was starting to get a little awkward.

"Tezuka, could I have a word with you please?"

He rose, not bothering to look at her as he did so, and trailed her to a corner of the room.

"Tezuka, what's wrong?"

"Nothing." The answer, curt and abrupt was obviously a lie.

"I'm sorry, okay?" She was starting to get annoyed.

"There's nothing to be sorry for."

"Stop being stubborn, Tezuka!"

-------------------------------

Meanwhile, at the other side of the room…

"Nya, Fujiko… don't you think they look cute together?"

Fuji smiled. "Souka…"

-------------------------------

Maika was positively irritated by now.

"You see this, Tezuka? What is it?"

He looked at it. "It's a fist."

"Well?"

"Shall we start practice?"

-------------------------------

_Disclaimer; The last part was taken out of Peanuts..._

_Ja, the next chapter will be the play itself... and I'm really sorry, 'cause I accidentally left out Taka-san... Anyway, review, ne?_


	12. Chapter 12

_And it's showtime!!_

**Chapter 12**

"I'm scared, nya!" Eiji was simply _full_ of nervous energy, which was why he was currently occupied with bouncing on the balls of his feet, while managing to get in everyone else's way.

"Fsshhh… who isn't?"

"I never knew you were a coward, mamushi…"

"Baka! Who's frightened?"

"You, obviously…"

Ryoma looked at his two quarreling sempais and tipped his cap further down.

"Mada mada dane."

-----------------------------

"Ladies and gentlemen," The announcer looked at the eager audience. "Now is the moment we have all been waiting for – a historic moment that we are privileged to witness today…"

"Presenting to you," There was a dramatic pause, "The Seigaku tennis club as Tennisella!"

And the stage was plunged into total darkness.

---------------------------------------

Maika pushed them onto the stage.

"You're on!"

Eiji only had time to let out a strangled squawk before his eyesight was assailed with the brightest spotlight he had ever seen.

Maika settled down in her chair.

_Now, to see how big a disaster this is going to be…_

-----------------------------

Tezuka scowled. This had to be worst night of his life ever.

The spotlights were too bright, the crowd was too noisy (he _seriously_ did not think that it was necessary to scream and catcall every single time he made an appearance on stage) and the whole play was simply _ridiculous_. Take, for example, what was currently happening on stage.

"Mou, Oishi, could you hand me that earring? I want to look pretty for tonight's – OW!"

Eiji, being Eiji, had inadvertently poked himself with the said earring. And being Eiji, he went hysterical at the sight of dark, crimson blood.

"NYA! OISHI! I'M DYING! HELP ME! I'M DYIIIIINNNNNGGGGG!!!!!!!!"

Maika buried her head in her hands. This was going to be a long night.

-------------------------------

"Fuj – uh, Tennisella! Come here, nya! I need you to help me do my hair!"

Fuji walked in demurely, looking exactly the part. "Yes, Eiji?"

"Hair!" Eiji pointed to his red mop.

The brown-haired boy began to fluff up Eiji's hair. "Eiji-sama? Could I go to the ball? _Please_?"

"Huh?" Eiji was busy playing with a pink hairclip. "Sure – ow! What did you poke me for, Fujiko?!"

"You're supposed to say no!" He hissed.

Eiji looked at him blankly. "I was supposed to sa – oh! Of course not! No way are you ever going to that ball, Tennisella!!"

_Maika-chan is gonna kill me…_

Fuji turned to Oishi. "Could I?"

Oishi looked in the mirror and adjusted his wig. "No."

"Please? Just this once?"

"No! You might get married to the prince, and you're still too young to do that – why, you're only _fifteen_!" Then a shocking idea materialized in Oishi's motherly mind. "Masaka! Don't tell me you're really thinking that? Fuji! Do you know what it could do to your future? Teenage pregnancies… no! Fuji! You can't give up your future just like that! Not even for Tezu – "

In the wings, Tezuka was trying his best not to go up there and strangle Oishi to death on the spot.

----------------------------------

"There is just one thing left to do before your transformation is complete, my child." Inui looked suspiciously like he was enjoying the play very much. _Too_ much, in fact.

"You have to drink this liquid."

There was utter silence in the hall as every gaze became riveted on the pitcher of toxic-looking neon green juice that seemed to belong more to the deepest depths of hell than in an ordinary school play.

_There's no way Cinderella could survive that thing…_

Everyone watched, partly in horror, partly in fascination as Fuji approached the pitcher without so much as blinking an eyelid.

"Gladly."

He finished the pitcher in a single gulp, and licked his lips.

"Do you have any more?"

-----------------------------

That night, they discovered many facts about each other. Such as the fact that Echizen Ryoma made an extremely _slow_ horse.

Apparently Tennisella a.k.a. Fuji thought so too.

"Echizen, would you mind hurrying up a little?"

"Yadda." Came the extremely stubborn and decisive reply.

A few people in the crowd snickered.

"Echizen, could you _please_ hurry up?" The honeyed voice and extra-sweet smile was a sign of oncoming danger. Unfortunately, Ryoma had absolutely no talent when it came to noticing these sort of things.

"Yadda."

At least, until it was shoved in his face.

"_Echizen._"

The carriage picked up speed immediately.

-------------------------------

"My prince," Fuji said breathily, doing his best impersonation of a lovestruck young lady.

"My prince," He repeated in a dreamy tone. "Do you really love me? Really, _really_ love me?"

And the extraordinarily socially-handicapped prince replied with no hint of a smile on his face.

"Aa."

It sort of made you wonder what Cinderella ever saw in the prince.

--------------------------

The play was an astounding success, with half the audience giving a standing ovation and the other half too busy laughing to really do anything other than make sure that they stayed upright.

"Anybody who wants to take pictures with the cast can do so for a price of 800 yen." The announcer looked at her next line, and her eyes bugged out. Was she _really_ supposed to say that?

But it was written here, after all…

"However, I am glad to inform you that Inui juice is free and available to the general public at that booth there."

Sure enough, Inui was busy making an extra large portion of Inui juice to feed the thousands of people whom he was sure would flock to his booth. Indeed, it was a brilliant idea to put the juice into the play – such good publicity!

_Or perhaps not…_

The moment he spotted Maika heading towards him, he disappeared in a hurry. He was _not_ about to let himself be murdered at such a young age.

--------------------------------

"Where's Inui?" Maika wondered out loud. "I could've sworn I saw him there a moment ago… now we can't get the full cast's photographs! Sheesh!"

She turned around, and came face to face with an all-too-familiar face.

"Atobe! What on earth are you doing here?!"

"I was just watching the most hilariously horrendous play on earth." He put an arm around her shoulder. "Your parents are looking for you."

"What's with the arm?" She asked as she began to follow him through the crowded auditorium.

"I just felt like it."

She looked at him suspiciously. "Did you come from a dinner?"

"Yes, why?"

She leveled an accusing finger at him. "You're tipsy."

He immediately retracted his hand. "Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Am not!"

He blocked his ears and began saying the first thing that came to mind. "I'm not tipsy and I can't hear you and therefore you lose and I'm not tipsy and you are wrong and you are wrong because I say you are wrong and – "

He was interrupted by one of his fingers being pulled out of his ear rather rudely.

"YOU'RE WRONG!!!"

And she shoved his finger back in.

----------------------------

"Good job, everyone!" She smiled at the whole cast.

Tezuka raised an eyebrow. She called that a _good_ job?

"It could have been worse."

_Ah._

"Any – " She was interrupted by the ringing of her cell phone. "Ah, excuse me a minute."

"Hello?"

There was a slight pause.

"What? I can't hear you!"

Another pause.

"I CAN'T HEAR YOU!!"

More silence.

"I SAID, I CAN"T HEAR YOU, YOU DONKEY!! IT'S TOO NOISY!"

The reply which came through the phone was audible to even the rest of the tennis regulars.

"I SAID, WE HAVE A DINNER TOMORROW SO **GET READY**!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" The rest was added in a more normal tone, the speaker obviously having run out of voice power. "I'll be picking you up from school tomorrow."

"Whatever…" She slammed the phone shut. "Anyway, where were – "

"Nya, Maika-chan! Who was that screaming at you?"

She laughed nervously. "You don't really need to know…"

"Your boyfriend?" Fuji suggested blandly.

Tezuka choked.

"My _boyfriend?!_" Maika nearly fell over in surprise.

Fuji shrugged. "Well, he did mention something about dinner…"

"…"

----------------------------------

_About the 800 yen thingy, it's a money-making ploy to raise funds for the tennis club... and do ignore the exact amount - I didn't check the exchange rate. _

_Review, ne?_


	13. Chapter 13

_Hey... first of all, I'd like to say a big thank-you to all my reviewers, especially to shirlynn - my dearest beta! This chapter was co-written with her, partly because I kept getting stuck, and she kept finding problems without solutions, so in the end I told her, "Sharing is caring!" And I pushed the chapter onto her... :P So if you see any changes in the writing style during the course of this chapter, forgive us both . _

_Oh, by the way, she said she'd take responsibility for any OOC-ness on the part of Tezuka - except the "snide" sentence... so if he's OOC, well, you know who to blame... XD_

_Just enjoy!_

**Chapter 13**

"Ah, he's here!" Maika smiled, and waved at him. "See you tomorrow!"

Tezuka barely had time to give a salutary wave before the limousine sped away. But something else had caught his attention.

_That logo, on the back of that limousine…_

His eyes narrowed.

_Atobe Keigo._

-------------------------

Maika took one look at the row of attendants standing in the hall and bolted, dragging a surprised Atobe Keigo with her.

"Atobe!" She hissed. "What are they doing here?"

He blinked. "To get you ready?"

"That many?" She cast a pointed glance towards the door. "You _know_ I hate make-up, Atobe!"

"It _is _a gala dinner, after all… just go in already and stop making such a fuss!" He pushed her back into the room, slamming the door behind her.

_Why, you - you little – I'll get you for this, Atobe Keigo!_

-----------------------------

Maika learnt that day that being passed from a make-up artist to a hairstylist to a wardrobe expert was a very exhausting experience. Well, not exhausting per se, but very, _very_ detrimental to one's personal mental health. She could just feel her brain cells atrophying as the clock ticked away.

She was suddenly aware of the lack of hands touching her hair in any way whatsoever.

"Are we done?" She asked, barely daring to hope.

"Ye – "

The hairstylist did not even manage to finish her sentence before Maika was gone.

"Miss, wouldn't you like to take a look at yourself in the mirror first? Miss? Miss! _Miss!_"

--------------------------

"I'm done!" She bounced into Atobe's room, where he was reading a book by the window. "Finally!"

"Ah, that's – " He stopped mid-sentence, hardly believing his eyes.

There was a long silence as he took in her elegantly coiffured hair, perfectly made-up skin and the long, flowing evening gown which flaunted her figure all too well.

"What?!" Maika demanded. "Is there something wrong? Do I have something on my face?"

Atobe closed his mouth, swallowing audibly. "You look…"

_Maika's always been pretty, but this is… this is…_

"…stunning."

He did _not_ just say that out loud.

"I beg your pardon?" Maika's voice was disbelieving. "Did you just say…?"

"…nothing."

--------------------------------

"Remember, hold your head up, walk gracefully and above all - do not, for goodness' sake, start bickering in public!"

"Yes, kaa-san," Maika said demurely. "Anyway, you and tou-san are going to be there as well, aren't you? Then you can just keep an eye on us there, ne?"

Her mother waggled a finger in her face. "Haven't you heard? Prevention is better than cure!"

--------------------------------

In the adjacent room, Atobe's mother was having a significantly different talk with her only son.

"Keigo, what do you think of Maika?"

He looked at his mother strangely, but answered anyway. "Well, she's pretty good company, I guess…"

"…smart, very adept at making up insults…"

His mother winced slightly upon hearing that.

"…fun, prett – " He stopped abruptly. "Why do you ask?"

"Oh, nothing really," She smiled. Her assumptions had been correct, after all.

When Atobe had gone out, she leaned over towards her husband's chair.

"I _told_ you so…"

-------------------------------

He stepped out of the limousine to be greeted by blinding flashes in his face. Not bothering with his usual pose for the cameras, he walked over to the other side and opened the door.

"Shall we?"

She took the proffered arm, and was welcomed into the social scene of aristocratic Tokyo.

----------------------------

"Welcome! Ah, Atobe! It's good to see you here!" The host's son smiled, showing a perfect row of white teeth. "And who is this lovely young lady?"

Maika, remembering what her mother had cautioned her, looked up demurely at him from beneath thick lashes. "Tawako Kamaika, dozo yoroshiku onegaishimasu."

The boy literally melted into a puddle of goo at her feet. "Ah, yoroshiku!" Aside to Atobe, he whispered, "This one's a _real _good catch, Atobe!" His eyes never left Maika.

Atobe shot him a warning look.

"Watch where you place your eyes," A noticeable tint of frostiness had entered his voice.

"A-ah, gomen! Welcome! Go on in!" He stammered a little. Offending an Atobe was never a good idea. Not if you wanted to remain in the top social circles, that is.

But Maika was not paying much attention anymore. As they moved away into the main hall, she fumed privately to Atobe, "I'm not a _catch_!"

"Of course not," Atobe agreed amiably. "You're just a girl that I've charmed with my incredible good looks and charisma."

He barely avoided getting a fist in his face for that.

----------------------------

"Are you sure it's alright to drink this?" She asked him nervously.

He gave the said drink a cursory glance. "Champagne? Of course! It's _the_ sign of classy elegance, you know…"

She rolled her eyes, but slowly brought the glass to her lips anyway.

"Eeurgh! It's bitter!"

"Just drink it." He hissed, inwardly thankful that no one had been paying enough attention to notice her little outburst. "You'll get used to it after awhile."

She pouted slightly, and raised the glass to her lips again.

The second sip wasn't as bad as she had expected it to be, and she soon started to like the warm, fuzzy feeling at the bottom of her stomach. After the next few sips, she decided that champagne actually wasn't too bad.

"Maika."

She turned to face her grey-haired companion. "Yes?"

"Stop drinking so much!"

"But you told me to drink it!" She said indignantly. "And besides, I've only drunk about the same amount _you_ have!"

He groaned mentally. "You have?"

_Let's just hope she has a naturally high alcohol-tolerance level…_

------------------------------

_I'm sleepy…_ Maika checked her watch drowsily. _And it's not even that late. How odd…_

Next to her, Atobe Keigo watched her eyelids droop and sighed mentally. At least she hadn't done anything royally embarrassing. That is to say, if you didn't count telling the president of Nodame Corporation that his comb-over was out of place. And if you ignored that little incident where she'd told the wife of his father's friend that she should go on a diet… He smirked a little. He doubted that she'd remember any of this tomorrow – not that he'd let her get away with it, of course. _Not a chance._ The smirk grew fractionally. _This is going to be fun…_

------------------------------

Humming the second movement of Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 to himself, a certain grey-haired boy was somewhat nonplussed when a very pretty, feminine head drooped onto his shoulder.

"I _told_ you you shouldn't have drunk so much, Maika."

Silence.

"Maika?"

More silence.

He swore slightly to himself. _And you accused me of being tipsy…_

_Oh well…_ he frowned at her slightly, then gently put his arm around her and resumed humming. In the darkness of the limousine, there was no one to notice the slight flush on his cheeks, or to point out that the music he hummed had become ever so slightly more erratic as they sped homeward.

-----------------------------------

_Bloody headache._ Maika lowered herself into her seat.

"Morning, Tezuka."

"Hn."

She massaged her temples gingerly. "Unusually reticent today, are we?"

There was no response from her seatmate, who suddenly seemed to be very absorbed in whatever he was doing.

Maika snorted slightly. Trust Tezuka Kunimitsu to find logarithms interesting… She looked back at her own work.  
The log of 9 to the base of a is equal to x. Express, in terms of x, to the base of…the log of 81a

She sighed, and very gently lowered her head onto the table. _Itai yo…_

"Tawako-san, may I ask you why you are not doing the problems on the board?" The stony voice of the teacher prompted her to lift her head approximately three inches off the table.

"A-ah, I'm sorry, sensei… I'm not feeling too well at the moment…" She mumbled, reminding herself that leaving out the actual _reason_ for her current predicament was technically not a lie. It was merely an unstated fact.

"Perhaps you should go see the nurse," The teacher's voice was a little more sympathetic. "Would you like a pass?"

"No, thanks," The immediate reply came. Maika wasn't _that_ sick to forget that a trip to the school nurse would most likely end up with her being sent to the principal's office for – horror of horrors! – underage drinking. Really, how did Atobe manage to pull this off every single time? She'd have to find out from him later.

"Are you sure?" The teacher asked, looking at her pale face.

"Hai, sensei! I'll be fine after a short rest."

Tezuka narrowed his eyes at her. _Liar._

She resumed her prayerful pose, her head once again resting on the table. But her peaceful repose was soon disturbed by a tapping on her desk that felt as if someone was hammering a fifty-pound nail through her head.

She did not bother to raise her head, instead snapping irritably, "What is it?"

"Your book."

"What about it?"

"It's encroaching on my desk."

"So?" she could feel the headache throbbing at her temples with every beat of her pulse. _Baka Atobe. Stupid dinners. Stupid champagne._

"Move it."

She didn't bother to reply.

In a lower tone, "And underage drinking is prohibited by law. Section 122 (a), Children's Act 1979."

"Shut up, Tezuka. You sound like a nanny. And you're making my headache worse."

"If you were stupid enough to drink it in the first place, then you'll just have to sit up and face the consequences." He was obviously in a snide mood today.

"Why don't you just concentrate on doing your homework?"

But Tezuka didn't intend to drop the subject. No, not at all.

"All actions have consequences," He pointed out, albeit a little nastily.

"_Tezuka._ Shut up."

He opened his mouth.

"_Now._"

And he shut up.

---------------------------

_So, how was it? Review!_


	14. Chapter 14

_I'm sorry for updating so late!_

_To saya: Don't worry, I'm not in the habit of taking reviews as flames, so you're safe... :D But about the part about her looking good at the dinner? It's the professional assistance which Atobe hired... ;) so those thick lashes are really Extra-Length Mascara-ed lashes..._

_Warning: This chapter is not beta-ed, since Shirlynn has gone into exam-caused seclusion, and which I will be undergoing shortly too... :(_

**Chapter 14**

Two mothers sitting together over the coffee table was never a good sign. Especially _not_ if they had identical, evil gleams in their eyes.

Maika's mother sighed. "But it won't work…"

The other conspirator looked up, surprised. "Why not?"

"Maika's so stubborn! If you push her one way, she'd probably go in the opposite direction just to spite you," Her mother explained, feeling somewhat guilty for bringing such a rebellious child into the world. "She'd probably cut off her nose just to spite your face."

Atobe's mother adopted a thoughtful expression. "Now that's a problem…"

They lapsed into a contemplative silence.

"What we need is for her to have to totally depend on him… so we should make her learn something she's never done before in her entire life…" A small smirk made its way up Atobe's mother's face. "I think I've got an idea…"

Maika's mother brightened. "What is it?"

"Does Maika play tennis?"

----------------------------------

Maika was not in the best of moods today. For some unfathomable reason, her mother had suddenly developed a bad case of insistence-is and had practically ordered her to learn tennis.

"But kaa-san, I don't even _like_ sports! The only sports I play is during Physical Education classes!"

"Exactly my point! You have to exercise more, dear, or you'll grow fat." Capitalizing on every girl's nightmare of extra adipose tissue was Atobe's mother's brainwave. It would have worked, if it hadn't been _Maika_ she was talking to.

"Well, then I'll grow fat and jolly and not exercise a single ounce my whole life!" She retorted, much to her mother's chagrin.

Atobe's mother exchanged an I-see-what-you-mean look with Maika's mother.

"Then you'll become obese, and you'll get a heart attack and die before me! I don't want to outlive my child, Maika! Can't you even do this simple thing for me?"

Maika thought it was highly unlikely that any of those awful scenarios would unfold in real life, but decided that it would be too much trouble to explain why. So she replied brightly, "Well, at least I can be sure that someone will bury me when I die, then!"

Atobe's mother gasped, and Maika's mother resisted the urge to smack her forehead. Girls weren't supposed to be like this, for goodness' sake! They were supposed to turn all teary and be docilely obedient!

But then again, this was _Maika_ they were talking about here.

"I'm sure you get my point, kaa-san, Atobe-san." She bowed lightly. "May I be excused?"

Her mother looked up. "No, you may not."

Maika had barely opened her mouth to protest when her mother cut her off. "Quit arguing and get your lazy ass out there right NOW!"

"Yes, kaa-san."

-----------------------------------

After she had changed into tennis gear, she walked over to the private tennis courts in the Atobe residence with an impending sense of doom. Atobe's mother had graciously offered the use of their 'magnificent' courts, as her own dear mother had termed it, and even hired an instructor, and as her one and only mother had added, "So you had better jolly well enjoy it!"

Her eyes widened slightly as she caught sight of one Atobe Keigo standing in the middle of the courts in the hot sun, quite possibly destroying his complexion due to over-exposure to sun rays.

"Atobe!" Her shout made him look up.

"Maika? What are you doing here?"

She promptly ignored his question, shooting off a question of her own. "Are you here to learn as well?" She hoped he was, because then at least she wouldn't be alone in her utter and complete lack of knowledge in tennis.

He looked extremely confused. "Learn what?"

She looked at him strangely. "Um… tennis?"

"_Learn_ tennis?!" He choked out.

"Well, yeah… why else would I be here?" She gave him another odd look, before turning to scan the courts. "Have you seen anyone else here? There's supposed to be this instructor who's going to teach me how to play, according to your mum…"

He suddenly had a very bad feeling about this in the pits of his stomach. A very, _very_ bad feeling.

-------------------------

"No, you hold your racquet like this," He instructed her for the umpteenth time, demonstrating with his own racquet.

"Like this?" She gripped her own racquet.

"Too high."

"This?" She slid it down a few centimeters.

"Too low."

"This?" She tried again.

"Too high."

"This?"

This was getting ridiculous. He marched up to her and positioned it perfectly in her hand for her. "Like that!"

She frowned, and readjusted her grip so it was exactly one centimeter too high. "But this is more comfortable!"

He gave up at that point.

-----------------------------

"Now, bring your racquet back and swing it in a big C. Like this." He demonstrated, his racquet making a perfect curve in the air.

"A big C…" She frowned, and concentrated on making as perfect an arc as his.

She was concentrating so hard that she saw nothing other than her racquet, and swung it as hard as she could.

And hit something solid.

_What the –! Did I hit a ball? How come there was a ball?_ _I managed to hit it?!_

"OUCH! What the hell were you trying to do, baka?!"

She snapped out of her trance-like state to see Atobe hopping about most undignifiedly on one foot, cursing in apparent pain.

_Sheesh…_

"…and I thought I had actually managed to hit a ball…"

----------------------------------

"You stand over here, and I'll feed you balls from the other side of the court."

She looked at him blankly. "Stand where?"

_Kami-sama…_

"Here." And he grabbed her hand, pulling her to the service line. "Now stand there and _don't move_ or I'll chop your head off."

"Hai, tou-san," She grinned cheekily.

He decided to ignore that last comment for the sake of his sanity, and got into position instead.

"Ready?"

"Yes!"

And he served.

Maika concentrated on the coming ball, remembering to put her left foot forward before taking her racquet back to perform a big C, and as the ball came towards her, she swung her racquet.

And missed the ball totally.

"_What the hell?!_"

-------------------------------

By the end of their session, Atobe was sweating more than he'd ever sweated before in his life. Who knew it was so much work to pick up balls that went out of court? Of course, that was probably because he had never seen anybody who managed to hit 99.9 percent of the balls out with as much accuracy as Maika.

"Why can't you ever hit it _in_?!" He groaned, as yet another ball went sailing gaily out.

"I'm _trying_!" She snapped irritably. "I'm new at this, okay?"

Atobe snorted. "I don't remember having hit _that_ many balls out in my entire _lifetime_ of playing tennis! I've never seen someone as hopeless as you before…"

"At least I can _hit_ the ball…" She retorted. "After two hours of training with a useless coach, what would you expect?"

"_Useless _coach?!" He could hardly believe his ears. "It's not _my _fault _you_ can't even control the ball, is it?"

"Shut your mouth, Atobe," She growled as she sent another ball out of bounds. "…or it'll be _you_ who'll be flying through the air next…"

------------------------------------

"And what's worse, I have a two-hour session with him every day after school! _Every day_! Can you believe it?" She fumed. "Two hours wasted with that stupid baka, playing the stupidest game in the world…"

Tezuka was torn between agreement that Atobe was, indeed, a stupid baka, and strong disapproval at tennis being called the stupidest game in the world - and a little niggling feeling that Atobe should _not_ be spending so much time with Maika on a regular basis.

He settled for a neutral response instead. "I could teach you how to play, if you want."

Maika looked at him blankly for a moment before realization dawned on her. "Oh, that's right. I nearly forgot that you play tennis."

"!!!"

---------------------------------

"Kaa-san, Tezuka's offered to coach me in tennis," She mentioned the fact in passing at the dinner table.

Her mother nearly choked on the piece of sushi she was eating. "And what did you say?"

"I said yes," She replied, and wondered why her mother had suddenly started to hyperventilate. "Didn't you want me to learn tennis as best as I could?"

"Really, Maika, I didn't mean you had to go to such extremes…"

She rolled her eyes. "And two hours a day with Atobe Keigo is not extreme?"

"You really shouldn't tax yourself too hard, Maika… are you sure you want this Tezuka person to coach you?" Her mother tried again.

"Well, if I'm going to spend so much time on it, I might as well make sure I can at least play a decent match, no?"

Sometimes her mother just wished that Maika wouldn't be so logical. It made winning arguments a _lot_ harder.

----------------------------------

_Gosh, I think I'm starting to like Atobe better - and this is a Tezuka/OC fic! -is shot- Just out of curiousity, though, who would you rather Maika end up with?_

_Review and tell me what you think, ne?_


	15. Chapter 15

_Hey! Sorry for the late update - I was having exams. :S And a very big thank you to all who reviewed! You made my day! As for the pairing, we'll just see how it goes, okay? _

_Anyway, just a quick note to warn you that Atobe is a little out-of-character in this chapter - and the ending of the chapter was a constant source of dissatisfaction for both shirlynn and I. But I shouldn't be taking up your time rambling on like this. Ja, read on!_

**Chapter 15**

"We're here."

Maika looked around at the tennis court that Tezuka had brought her to. She had suggested using Atobe's one, since there were so many courts that he wouldn't miss one being occupied, but Tezuka had just muttered something about not showing any weakness and brought her here. Where ever this was.

"So what do we do first?" She asked him, swinging her racquet playfully about. "Do we – "

"10 laps around the court." Tezuka replied.

She froze, her racquet in midair. "What did you say?"

"Run ten laps around the court." Tezuka repeated patiently.

A suspicious look crossed her eyes. "Are you trying to punish me for something I did which annoyed you? 'Cause I don't remember being _too_ irritating yesterday."

He snorted. "If I had wanted to punish you, I'd have made you run fifty laps. And that wouldn't even cover it. This is for warm-up."

"Warm-up?!" She could hardly believe her ears.

"_Now._ Or do you want twenty?"

She was off before he even finished his sentence.

---------------------------

"What a _wonderful_ warm-up," She gasped out, still managing to inject a little edge of sarcasm into her voice despite being all out of breath. "Now can I rest?"

Tezuka looked at her as if she was crazy. "Don't be silly. We've only just started."

"_Started_?!!"

"50 swings now!"

"...maybe I should just have stuck with Atobe."

----------------------------------

Atobe was bored. There was no denying it.

He drummed his fingers idly on the table, gazing out at the flower-infested gardens his mother so loved. Thinking of flowers made him think of girls, which inevitably led him to Maika.

He groaned. _Not again..._

Perhaps if he went and took a drive around, it might help get his mind off things. _Besides providing some kind of entertainment..._ He brightened.

"Chauffeur!"

-----------------------------

"I feel so dead..." She groaned. Who knew that Tezuka Kunimitsu was such a slave driver?

She checked her watch, and groaned again. Only fifteen minutes and already she was sweating like a pig. If this kept up any longer, she probably wouldn't even be able to make it back home.

"Mou, Tezuka, can't I rest?" She pouted slightly.

"Not if you want to improve," He told her.

"YES! FINALLY!" She immediately made her way to the nearest bench and plonked herself down on it.

Tezuka raised an eyebrow. "You don't want to improve?"

"Not right now, I don't," She agreed amiably. "Come on and sit, Tezuka."

He eyed the bench quizzically.

"You know, a little rest can't hurt you," She patted the spot next to her. "Sit!"

Against his better judgment, he sat.

And immediately regretted it as he was rewarded with a pat on the head. "Good doggie!"

"..."

------------------------------

Atobe sat in the air-conditioned limousine, smiling slightly as the scenery passed slowly. While not exactly how he pictured himself spending the day, at least it provided some diversion to thinking about a certain brown-eyed girl...

He immediately lost his train of thought as he suddenly caught sight of two familiar-looking figures.

The word was out of his mouth before you could say 'Jacknife'.

"_Stop!_"

---------------------------

"How 'bout we go down to the street courts to play for awhile?" Momo suggested, stuffing the remains of his burger into his mouth.

Eiji frowned for a moment. "Nya, I haven't done my homework yet..."

"...but who cares? Let's go!"

-----------------------------

"Nya, Fujiko, let's go play at the courts!"

"Eiji?" The tensai's questioning voice came out of the receiver end of the phone, which Eiji had put on loudspeaker.

"No, it's Barney." Ryoma rolled his eyes. "Could you just say yes before Kikumaru-sempai starts yelling – "

"Hey!" Eiji took the phone away, making a face at the freshman. "Mou, Fujiko..."

A silvery laugh was heard. "Hai, hai, I'm coming. Which courts?"

"Anou..." Eiji thought for a moment. "How about those near that newly-opened restaurant?"

"Sure!"

------------------------------

"I thought you said there wouldn't be anybody here, Kikumaru-sempai!" Momo complained loudly.

"Well, I _thought_ there wouldn't – " Eiji stopped abruptly in the middle of his sentence, and without any explanation, simply dragged them all into the nearest bush.

"_What the -_ !"

------------------------------

"Did you hear something?" Maika asked Tezuka, her head cocked to one side.

Tezuka shook his head negatively, and they continued practising.

---------------------------------

Inside the bush, an emergency meeting was going on.

"Kikumaru-sempai!" Momo said indignantly. "What do you think you're doing, pulling us all into the - !"

Surprisingly enough, it was Ryoma's hand which clapped over his mouth and muffled him.

"Echizen?!" Momo spluttered. "Get your hand off – "

"That's _Tezuka-buchou_." Ryoma hissed.

There was immediate silence.

"Ahhh..." Momo finally saw the light and was just about to drag them all out of here before they got laps when Eiji emitted a surprised squeak.

All heads turned to him.

"Is that – is that _Maika-chan_?!"

-----------------------------

Atobe got out of the car, torn between an infantile desire to stomp up to them and demand what they were doing at a street court with _each other_ and the knowledge that if he threw a temper tantrum in public, he'd never be able to live it down.

So what was he to do? He mulled it over in his head for a moment, making sure that he was well-hidden behind a conveniently tall tree.

_Maybe he could pretend to have been walking through the area and – oh, right... Atobe Keigo NEVER walks. _

Why was he doing this again?

A voice penetrated his consciousness.

"... improve... forehand drive..."

Tezuka.

Oh, right.

Tezuka

And _Maika._

He shook his head. _No, not compatible! Simply not compatible!_

_Stay cool. _He took a deep breath. _Stay calm. Atobe Keigo is calm, cool, composed..._

Peering around the tree trunk, he saw Tezuka adjusting Maika's grip for her.

_He's touching her! He's holding her hand! _

Calm and composed flew out of the window in an instant.

"FOUL!!!!!!!!!!!"

-------------------------------

Maika looked up, startled by the sudden shout. Who on earth shouted "Foul!" at a _tennis_ court, anyway?

The figure which came striding towards them was very familiar, and definitely unexpected.

"Atobe?!!"

He did not even bother to address her, turning straight to Tezuka instead.

"Tezuka, I would have expected _you_ of all people to at least play fair! You _know_ you shouldn't be taking advantage of the situation here." He sounded almost petulant, blissfully ignoring the fact that he had done exactly the same thing barely twenty-four hours ago.

Tezuka blinked.

Atobe did not seem perturbed by the lack of response. "It's really unfair, seeing as how _I_ have parental supervision all the time and you don't and – and – ARGHH!! Tezuka! _JUST STOP HOLDING HER HAND ALREADY!!"_

"Huh?"

---------------------------

The regulars looked on in amazement as Atobe Keigo barged into the scene, creating what could only be described as mild chaos.

"Atobe-san's trying to steal Maika-chan away from Tezuka!" Momo reported, horrified. "We have to help buchou!"

"But – " Oishi began to protest.

"Saa," Every head immediately swiveled around to face Fuji.

"That looks like fun."

It only took an answering grin from Eiji, and the threesome on the courts was officially doomed.

--------------------------

"Eiji! Fuji! You mustn't!"

Fuji gave Oishi a who-me-I'm-completely-innocent kind of smile - the kind of smile which usually made everybody within ten feet of him start backing away. "Don't worry, Oishi. Besides, we have to help Tezuka as much as he can. He _is_ our buchou, after all..."

"But – "

"Would you leave a friend in distress?"

"But – "

"Would you leave Tezuka to fight this battle," Fuji paused for dramatic effect. "..._alone_?"

"But – "

"It's true, Oishi-sempai," Momo sighed. "You don't know how it is to find the girl of your dreams... and then – poof! She's snatched from under your nose!"

Taka-san patted him awkwardly.

"But – " Oishi closed his mouth, then opened it again. "Atobe-san – "

"Che, I don't care what happens to Monkey King." Ryoma finished the last of his Ponta and got to his feet. "Although perhaps you could give him my salutations."

Fuji quite accurately interpreted it as a kick in the ass, and grinned from ear to ear. After all, what good was it having nice, strong leg muscles when you didn't use it from time to time?

Seigaku's pride had to be upheld, after all. It was just the question of technique.

-----------------------------

Maika was thoroughly fed up. Not only had she absolutely _no_ idea what was going on, Atobe's appearance had disrupted her tennis practice. Not that she actually minded it, but now that there was nothing to concentrate on, she had suddenly realised that she was really, _really_ hungry. Ravenous would probably be a better word for it.

She looked at the two arguing boys (well, Atobe was doing most of the talking, but hey, who's counting?) in the midst of the... _Seigaku regulars?!_ Since when did they get here? _Well, who cares? _She could have been sitting down to a delicious, mouth-watering dinner at home by now, but no, she had to be stuck here watching these madmen fight or do whatever they were currently occupied in doing.

It was enough to make her blow her top.

"STOP IT NOW!"

Everyone stopped and stared at her.

"Atobe Keigo!" In the deafening silence that followed, her shout held more than just a hint of a threat.

He reluctantly disengaged himself from the crowd, expecting the worst. "Yes?"

"Where's your limo?"

"Huh?" He hadn't seen _that_ one coming.

"Where's your limo?" Maika repeated impatiently. She narrowed her eyes at him. "You _did_ come in one, didn't you?"

He blinked at her once. "Yes... it's over there."

She looked over and saw the familiar black limousine. "Could I borrow it for awhile?"

He was too busy gaping at the sudden randomness of it all to answer.

"Ja, see you! Have fun arguing!" She was halfway to the limo before he realised that she was going to leave him stranded here with all these people with no means of transportation back home and...

"_Maika! Come back here! NOW!_"

-----------------------------------

Atobe slammed the car door behind him, panting slightly. Thank God for his tennis reflexes, or he'd never have made it in time - no thanks to Maika.

He made a face at her. "Limousine thief!"

"Who, me?" She fluttered her eyelashes at him. "What did I do?"

"That makes you look _seductive_, not innocent." He told her, half-laughing at the sudden scandalized look that appeared on her face.

"Oh, fine," She huffed. Then her mind turned to other more important matters. "What were you and Tezuka arguing about anyway?"

His cheeks took on a faint pinkish tinge. "Nothing important..."

She raised an eyebrow. "Well, obviously important enough for you to have just destroyed your reputation – among the Seigaku regulars, at least."

He gave her a blank look.

"Your reputation...?" She repeated, waving a hand in front of his face. "Unless you go about randomly bursting out from nowhere and getting into a violent argument in public all the time?"

His eyes widened. "Oh, _crap!_"

"Yes, crap," She agreed pleasantly. "Would you like a glass of champagne to celebrate your voluntary destruction of your own public image?"

"_Shut. Up._"

------------------------------------

_So how was it? Review, ne?_


	16. A Terribly Delayed Author's Note

**!! This is NOT a chapter! (I know it goes against the guidelines, but just bear with me, 'kay?)**

_First off, I'd like to apologise very deeply to my dear devoted readers for neglecting for the past few weeks -coughmonthscough-... -shifty eyes-_

_I do have a rough draft of sorts for the next chapter of "The Iceman Cometh", but it's nowhere near finished (yet!) and since exams are just around the corner... I will probably not be posting again until mid-October. I'm really, really, reaaaaaaaaaalllllllllllllllyyyyy sorry! Gomen ne! -hides face from wrath of readers-_

_And meanwhile, Maika says to wish you all a very happy summer!_

_See you soon, ne? And thanks for all your reviews and support and love (that I hardly deserve, after all the months of neglect)!_

_-stophoggingtheblanket-_


	17. Chapter 16

_First off, I must say that I owe my readers an extra-big apology for delaying this chapter by two weeks. -hides face from shame- I had actually written a first draft, but it was pretty much trash, if I may say so myself. T.T So I rewrote the whole thing, and this is the result with several modifications after some consultation with my beta. _

_I hereby sincerely apologise for the lateness of this chapter, and the quality of writing - I still haven't gotten used to writing something non-exam oriented yet! Gimme awhile to get back on my feet, ne?_

_Ja, read on!_

**Chapter 16**

"Tezuka?"

He looked up from his book, and she absently wondered how he managed to stare at such a boring thing for so long without his eyes becoming glassy. Probably something to do with how he actually absorbed information from that dry passage of text, unlike her own rather uncooperative brain.

"Hn?"

Or then again, it could be because he identified only too well with the tedious old textbook, thanks to his overly exciting personality.

_Not._

Anyway, back to the conversation.

"What were you and Atobe fighting about yesterday?"

He stared at her blankly for a moment before coughing uncomfortably. "Why don't you ask him instead?"

"I did," Maika said. "But he wouldn't tell."

"Ah." Tezuka returned to his book.

"Well?" She prodded.

"Well what?"

"What were you arguing about?"

He looked positively ill at ease now. Well, as ill at ease as a block of wood could, at any rate. "Nothing."

"Tezuka." There was the slightest hint of a threat in her voice. "Tell me. _Now."_

There was no response.

"Or perhaps I should go ask Fuji-kun?" Maika wondered out loud.

"No!" Tezuka shuddered to think what the tensai might tell her. She would probably come back with a fantastical tale that was sure to be highly scandalous and would cause him no end of trouble. "Whatever you do, _don't_ ask Fuji."

_Success!_

She raised an eyebrow. "Well then, _tell me!_"

"Atobe was..." Tezuka seemed to be having a little difficulty in getting out the words. He swallowed, and continued. "Atobe seemed to be... jealous?" He braced himself for the oncoming burst of laughter.

But it never came.

Maika cocked her head to one side. "Jealous? Of what?"

_For crying out loud, how dense is this girl? _

He put down his book and resisted the overpowering urge to bang his head on the nearest hard surface. "How dense can you be?!"

She snorted. "Look who's talking..."

_Block of wood calling human being dense? I must be hallucinating._

"He's jealous of me! Because I was holding your hand and - " Tezuka didn't even get to finish his sentence when she exploded into laughter.

"Atobe? Jealous?" She gasped out in between chuckles. "Of _you_?"

The mere thought was enough to send her into fits of laughter again.

Tezuka sighed, and reminded himself that it was only ten minutes more to the end of school.

_Just ten more minutes..._

--------------------------------

"Hey," She greeted the sole heir of the Atobe corporation, who was currently lounging about on a plush cream-coloured, genuine leather sofa. Not exactly the kind of thing an heir was supposed to do, but still...

"Maika," He greeted from his graceful sprawl across the sofa. "How was your day?"

"It was... pretty interesting," Her voice was carefully modulated, but her eyes were sparkling with repressed mischief. "Say, Atobe?"

"Hmm?" He popped a cherry into his mouth.

"Have you ever been..." She trailed off, watching him carefully.

"Been...?" He prompted.

"...jealous?"

His reaction was instantaneous.

"_WHAT?!!" _He sat up, nearly spitting out the half-eaten cherry. "Why should I be jealous?! I have everything I could possibly want! Is this some kind of joke? Are you trying to say that I can't get anything I want?! Ore-sama is NEVER jealous, I repeat, NEVER!!!"

Maika almost wished she had a box of popcorn with her. This was as good as watching a soap opera live.

"How dare you imply such a – a _thing?!_ This is outrageous! Disgraceful! Shocking! How could you – how did you – "

"It was Tezuka," Maika informed him simply, cutting Atobe off in the midst of his spluttering. "He told me that that was why you were arguing with him yesterday."

"_Tezuka?!_" He was positively fuming by now. "How could he – "

He stopped abruptly in the middle of his rant, causing Maika to look up at him in surprise.

"Wait a moment..." Atobe said slowly. "Did you say yesterday?"

Puzzled, Maika answered, "Yes..."

"Oh-h-h..."

Maika quirked an eyebrow. "Yes? Is there something I should be aware of?"

"Ehehe..." Atobe coughed. "Nope, nothing! Nothing at all!"

"_Really..._"

"Really! I have absolutely _no_ reason to be jealous of Tezuka Kunimitsu! I mean, I only lost my temper because – because – you – "

"I...?" Maika prompted.

"You – you – I – I mean – "

Maika's eyebrows shot up. What on earth was Atobe Keigo trying to say?

"I – aish!" He ran a frustrated hand through his hair. "I just – the tennis balls he used were too low-quality!"

There was dumbfounded silence for a moment before the intelligent response came.

"Huh?"

"I mean, these sort of balls are terrible for training! Don't you know that? Why, they're not even fit for street tennis! They – "

"But all I was doing was practising swinging my racquet," Maika recalled, much to Atobe's annoyance and misfortune.

"Ah-h-h..." He fumbled for a moment before regaining his composure. "That's 'cause I managed to stop you before you used those worthless balls! They're not even worth five yen – how do you expect to be able to play proper tennis with such poor quality stuff?"

"What?" This was getting more and more confusing.

"Add to that the fact that your tennis skills are practically non-existent and what do you get? A recipe for disaster!" Atobe was going full-steam by now. "Seriously! And you still expect me to train you after all that – "

Maika, however, had stopped listening at "non-existent tennis skills". She advanced on Atobe, eyes flashing dangerously. "Mr. Oh-So-Perfect-That-I-Feel-The-Need-To-Make-Fun-Of-Everyone-Else, may I remind you that _your _own tennis skills leave much to be desired, seeing as how you haven't beaten Roger Federer for the Wimbledon title yet?"

"_Excuse me?_" If there was one thing Atobe couldn't bear, it was people making fun of his tennis abilities.

"Shouldn't you be world champion by now if you're _that_ good in tennis? Shouldn't you, huh? _Shouldn't you?!_"

Any more cautious person would have started backing away. But Atobe was not the sort to retreat from any battle, especially not when it involved the question of pride. Or more accurately, _his_ pride.

"What do _you_ know? You can't even hit a ball to save your life!"

"No, I can't!" She shot back. "But I'm not going around boasting of superior tennis skills that can overpower the world, am I?"

"So what if I do?"

"It just goes to show that you're nothing but an empty can!" She retaliated.

"Oh, yeah? Says who?"

"Says me!"

"_Who?"_

"Me!"

"You wanna fight?"

"Sure! I'll beat you anyday!"

"_WHAT?!"_

"Just you wait, Atobe Keigo, I'll get you!"

"You – you – impertinent little – !"

And another fight was merrily underway.

--------------------------------------

The maid coming in to refill their glasses of fruit juice at that precise moment hastily backed out of the door. Everyone knew better than to disturb _this_ pair in the middle of a catfight.

Seeing the pitcher of fruit juice coming back untouched with the maid (who incidentally looked as if she had just surprised two bulldogs fighting), the matronly head of the kitchen shook her head despairingly.

"Children these days..."

--------------------------------------

"Is that so?" The mistress of the grandiose mansion raised a perfectly-shaped eyebrow. "It seems that I'll have to talk to him when he gets back, then." She nodded at the chauffeur. "You may go."

The poor man scrambled off, inwardly thanking his lucky stars that Atobe-san hadn't exploded upon hearing what a fool her own dear son had made of himself (in public too, no less!). He had worked for them for many years, and he knew just how much the Atobe household valued their impeccable aristocratic standing in society. Well, young Atobe-sama was definitely going to have it in for him the next time he saw his mother.

"Well, what do you make of that?" Atobe's mother turned to the lady sitting beside her, after making sure the chauffeur was well out of earshot.

Maika's mum broke into a mischievious grin. "I'd say that our plan's progressing along quite nicely, don't you think?"

Mrs. Atobe a.k.a. Evil Schemer Number Two answered with a smirk that just bordered on evil. "I haven't had as much fun in years!"

And they clinked their teacups in a cheer that would have raised the hackles of the cruelest fairytale villain on earth. Mothers were indeed a force to be reckoned with.

-------------------------------------

The moment he stepped into the room, he knew something was wrong. Very, _very_ wrong. He was just about to back out of the door when a honeyed voice stopped him in his tracks.

"And where might you be going, Echizen?" The angelic smile on Fuji's face belied the faint threat lurking behind those words.

He silently cursed the tensai genes that enabled Fuji to see past his closed eyelids. "To... to get Ponta!" Congratulating himself on his stroke of brilliance, he turned to make good his escape when Fuji opened his mouth yet again.

"Don't you think saving Tezuka is far more important than a can of Ponta, Echizen?"

"_**EH?!!**_"

------------------------------------

"So this is what we do..."

Ryoma sighed for the umpteenth time that day. This was _utterly _ridiculous. Someone falling apart if they couldn't play tennis anymore... _that_ he could understand. But all this – just because of a _girl?!_ His teammates had obviously lost hold of their sanity. Not that he hadn't suspected it before, but this was – this was – oh, good grief, he was spluttering just _thinking_ about it! How much more absurd could they get? Not to mention the number of laps they'd be running if Tezuka-buchou ever found out about this...

"I'm not doing it."

An immediate silence fell over the group.

"Would you care to repeat that?" The words hung in the air like the sword of Damacles over his head.

"I'm not – " The sudden flash of Fuji's blue orbs made him stop abruptly. Suddenly the thought of running a thousand laps seemed far more appealing than facing Fuji-sempai's wrath.

"...nothing."

"Good." And Fuji sat back with a satisfied smirk. "As I was saying before Echizen so _politely_ interrupted me," the tensai sent a poisonously sweet glare his way, if such a thing was even possible, "Echizen and Momo, you'll both be in charge of dealing with the enemy's cronies."

"Huh? Cronies? What cronies?" Sometimes Fuji-sempai was way too smart for his own good.

The said tensai flashed them his most winning smile.

"Go get Hyoutei."

--------------------------------------

"I still don't see the point, Momo-sempai. Why all this trouble just to keep Monkey King from meeting up with a girl?" He grumbled, pulling his cap lower to hide his face. Maybe if he pulled hard enough, the cap would just swallow him up completely. That would be very useful if they came across anyone they knew while trying to complete the mission Fuji-sempai set them. Which, judging by the way his luck was going today, they probably would.

"Ah, the innocence of youth!" Momo-sempai was obviously in a very boisterous mood today. "You still don't understand the importance of girls, eh?"

He rolled his eyes. "Forget I ever asked."

"And besides, it's not just _any _girl, it's Maika-chan. You _do_ remember her, don't you?"

Of course he did. How could he forget, when she had forced him to participate in one of the most traumatic experiences in his entire life?

"You know, Maika-chan, Tezuka-buchou's girlfr – hey, Echizen, wanna go for burgers?" The sudden appearance of a burger joint on their right had evidently distracted Momo, and Ryoma simply refused to be the one to remind him of the ridiculous task they were supposed to fulfil.

"You're paying, right?" And without waiting for an answer, he proceeded to dive into the entrance of the restaurant, leaving Momo staring blankly at the spot Ryoma was standing just milliseconds ago until...

"_What?! _I'm _not _paying! _Echizen!_ _**ECHIZEN!!!**_"

Inside the burger joint, Ryoma allowed himself a slight smirk. Maybe Lady Luck _was_ smiling down on him after all. After all, free burgers didn't just come rolling down the lane everyday.

------------------------------------

"Well, what's next?"

The two mothers frowned in concentration, trying to will forth inspiration for the next phase of their Get-Maika-and-Atobe-Together-Without-Being-Too-Obvious Scheme.

All of a sudden, Atobe's mum snapped her fingers, making Maika's mother jump in surprise. "Hold on a second... doesn't Maika paint?"

The said girl's mother looked blankly at her counterpart. "Quite well, actually. She once painted a portrait of her father, and it's still hanging in his study. Do you want to see – "

"That's it!" Atobe-san clapped her hands together.

"That's what?" Maika's mum asked, completely bewildered.

"That's it!" Atobe's mother repeated excitedly. "Here's the plan..."

The two perfectly-coiffured heads bent together in a furiously whispered discussion until Maika's mum suddenly laughed. "It's flawless!"

Atobe-san beamed. "You think so?"

"It's _beyond_ perfect!" The other grinned infectiously. "Let's do it!"

And thus did the doom of Atobe Keigo and Tawako Kamaika come upon them, ever unwitting, in the form of their most trusted persons besides themselves.

Isn't it absolutely brutal how the world works at times?

--------------------------------------------

"Here, Maika, just listen to me," Her mother was starting to regret ever having such a headstrong child in the first place. Why couldn't she be like other normal girls, docile and obedient?

"But I still don't see why I have to paint someone's portrait! I mean, if you want a portrait done, shouldn't you employ a professional artist?" Maika protested.

"Come on, dear," It was time to resort to dirty tactics. Although it seemed that whenever it came to Maika, the only thing that _would_ work was playing dirty. And if she had to do it, well, so be it. It'd be worth it when she got a great son-in-law like Atobe Keigo next time. "Can't you do just _one_, for your father's and my sake? He's a great friend of ours, you know, and it'd mean a lot to us if you could just do this _one_ portrait..."

Maika made a face. "Oh, okay... since it's _so_ important to both of you..."

Her mother beamed excitedly. "You will? Oh, _thank you_, dear!"

"Don't thank you me," Maika retorted irritably. "And this had better not be one of your schemes to set me up with a prospective son-in-law, or _else_..."

"Of course not! Don't be silly!" She ushered her daughter out of the room brightly, and immediately started wondering where she could seek asylum in, say, about two days' time.

Perhaps she ought to have thought a little longer before coercing Maika to go along with the idea. The repercussions were somewhat more terrifying than she had taken into consideration. But of course, there was always the tiniest sliver of hope that Maika might finally come to her senses and realise that Atobe Keigo was the greatest catch of all time, and would thank her mother profusely for guiding her to the path of enlightenment.

She thought about it a little more, and decided that she'd ring up the airline company at the first chance she got. Maybe her sister in Canada would let her stay for a few months.

----------------------------------------------

"Keigo, listen to me, will you?" His mother was having a slightly better time of it than her counterpart, but only _slightly_.

"But I already _have _a portrait of me, kaa-san!" He had gone through the painstaking experience of modeling for a portrait before, and certainly didn't relish having to sit on a stool and rot all day for more than a week every single day. "What's wrong with it?"

"It's so _old,_ dear," She stressed the word, bringing her full ability of dramatics into play. "And why, look at how inaccurate it is!"

"You didn't seem to think so at that time," Atobe observed wryly, but turned to survey the said portrait. Perhaps his mole was a fraction of a millimeter to the right of where it should be, and one curl of his hair was slightly off, but he didn't see anything that really needed any drastic correcting - definitely not enough to warrant a second portrait. And he said as much to his mum.

"But dear, we're getting someone _special_ to paint this new portrait for you! She doesn't paint just anyone, you know," His mum said, praying fervently that he'd stop being such a mule about it and just go along with the idea.

"But being painted is so _boring!_ I can't even read, or move a muscle, or breathe – " Atobe was starting to get a little exotic in his exaggerations when his mum cut him off.

"I can assure you it won't be boring," She said with the slightest hint of a smile. "Oh, and Keigo, do try to control your temper in public the next time. We have a reputation to uphold, you know."

And she swept out of the room, leaving him to wonder how on earth she had known about his outburst, and why she hadn't lectured him for hours after hearing about it.

"And what's up with this portrait thing, anyway?" He muttered. Not getting an answer to his questions (not that he actually expected to, since there was no one in the room), he stalked off to go clear his head with a game of tennis.

----------------------------------------

"We're here. Don't forget to bring out your art supplies from the car, dear," Her mother called over her shoulder.

Sometimes she wondered if her mother really thought she was _that _dumb. "Yes, kaa-san," Maika opened the door to get out, and stopped short in pure astonishment.

She looked at the house in front of her, then at her mother, who was busy fiddling with something in the driver's seat.

"Uh, kaa-san?" She asked.

"Yes, dear?" Her mother glanced at her, wondering whether she should start running now.

"...I think you've got the wrong house. This is Atobe-san's house."

"Oh, that!" Her mother laughed merrily. "It's the correct one, don't worry!"

When she saw Maika's brows beginning to crease, she hurriedly added, "Ah, it's because their house is so lavish, you know... it provides an elegant backdrop to the portrait, so he decided to have the portrait done here... ahahaha..."

Maika frowned. "He... knows Atobe-san?"

"Oh, yes! They're great friends! Did I forget to mention that? Ehehe... I'm sorry," Her mother laughed nervously, hoping Maika wouldn't detect anything suspicious. "Well, you know your way around from here, right? Atobe-san will show you to the room once you're inside."

She looked at Maika, with her set of paints and arty stuff cradled in her arms, and decided that she'd just overstayed her welcome. "Ah, I should be going now! Ja, see you later!" And with that, her mother slammed the car door and raced off at what was probably way over the speed limit.

Maika looked at the cloud of dust where the car was barely seconds ago, at the paints in her arms, and at the large, opulent mansion. There was something fishy about this, but she couldn't quite put her thumb on it.

"Oh, well. There's only one way to find out, I guess."

She pushed open the carved oak door, and stepped inside.

-----------------------------------------

_So how was it? (I know it's long... just think of it as me trying to make up for it being so terribly late :P) Do review and tell me what you think! Or if not, at least just give me a holler to know you're still reading, 'kay?_

_-Salutations from stophoggingtheblanket_


	18. Chapter 17

_...I updated. XD_

_I know this chapter is more than seven months late, but better late than never, right? And I've finally discovered the way I'm going to end it - which is a good thing, ne? (If you've been reading this story, you'll know that a proper plot with direction is... uh, not one of my talents. XD) In any case, I apologise with all my heart for making all my readers wait so long, but I can safely say that I am NOT abandoning this story to rot in the grave, and while it might take a little time to update, I'll try my best not to leave you all hanging ever again. T.T -is properly ashamed of herself-_

_This chapter sets the scene for the next few, so... uh, Tezuka/Maika/Atobe action will come a little later? ;D And you might want to reread the previous chapter in case you've forgotten where I left off. :3  
_

_Ja, read on, ne?_

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"They're _what_?" From the split-second view of Fuji's blue orbs which they were treated to, Oishi didn't need Inui's data skills to know something bad was happening.

He looked again at the tensai, whose shoulders had tensed slightly.

Well, if something bad hadn't happened _yet_, it was going to happen _soon_ if Fuji had any say in the matter. He shuddered inwardly as Fuji slid his phone shut with slightly more force than needed.

"Echizen and Momo are eating burgers." Fuji stated matter-of-factly.

Eiji blinked uncomprehendingly. "They're eating burgers with Hyoutei?"

He wasn't sure if it was just him, but he could have sworn that Fuji's smile had a sinister gleam to it. "No, they're eating burgers. By themselves."

"By themselves...?" The red-headed boy was stumped for a moment before his brain finally registered the stupendous statement.

"_NYA!_ How can he treat ochibi and not treat _me?!_ After all the times I've paid for them... that rascal!"

Oishi choked as he watched his doubles partner miss the point altogether and put himself in tremendous danger from a pissed-looking blue-eyed tensai.

"Ah-h-h, Eiji... could I talk to you for a moment? I think our Australian Formation needs a little more practice..." He wondered if Fuji would see through the lie.

"But I thought you just said today that it was coming along quite w - !" One hand clapped over Eiji's mouth, Oishi immediately dragged Eiji away before the former could cause any more trouble than he already had.

Fuji looked at the phone in his hand.

"Eating burgers, eh?" He smiled as an idea began to take root. "Interesting..."

And he sauntered merrily off to find Inui, an evil smirk firmly in place.

''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

Maika waited in one of the Atobe's many drawing rooms, wondering how the person she was supposed to paint would look like. As a general rule, she wasn't especially shallow when it came to judging people by their looks, but if she was required to sit there and stare at an unlovely person for a few whole days (not to mention studying every single pore and pimple on said person's face) she thought long trips to the toilet might be in order.

In any case, the person was taking an awfully long time to get here. She fidgeted on her chair, wondering if anyone would notice if a pear was gone from the artistically arranged fruit basket in front of her. She hadn't eaten much this morning, because her mum was far too excited to actually settle down to cook anything remotely edible – she winced at the memory of the very, _very_ raw egg and the horribly burnt toast she'd had for breakfast not an hour ago.

_Atobe-san wouldn't mind, right?_ She cast a longing glance at the tempting fruit. _It's just a pear, ne?_

Of course, the pear could poison her if she ate it. Knowing the amount of chemicals farmers sprayed on their crops nowadays, it would hardly be surprising if she choked and died two seconds after biting into the pear – just like Snow White and her infamous poisoned apple. She sighed, and settled instead for humming under her breath, tapping her fingers in time to the melody.

"Now _that_ is one tuneless melody," A snide voice observed from behind her.

She turned around to see the bane of her existence come stalking up to her, tossing the very pear she had been admiring earlier in one hand.

"Really, I'd have expected a _proper, qualified_ painter at the very least. After all the time I'm going to waste having my portrait painted, I'd have expected professional expertise, if nothing else."

Maika, however, was in too much shock to reply with a barb of her own.

"_YOU?! AGAIN?!"_

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"Two hours – with that _insufferable prig_ – " Maika fumed, "I – I – _gahh!_"

Tezuka lifted an eyebrow at her unprovoked descent into incoherency.

"Can you imagine it? Two full hours with Atobe Keigo, _looking_ at him, _staring _at that _darned mole of his_," the tone of disgust dripping from her voice expressed her opinion of said beauty mark all too eloquently.

Tezuka could only imagine it too well. With Atobe's ego and Maika's tongue, it was a wonder they hadn't torn each other apart yet. But then, perhaps it worked somewhat similar to the way planets orbited the sun – gravitational forces of both kept them in orbit, always at a certain distance from one another – he shook his head. What was he thinking?

"...you're not listening, are you?"

He blinked. "What?"

Maika opened her mouth, presumably to annihilate him, and closed it again. "Forget it. Anyway, I'm _so_ glad that's over and done with. Don't you agree?"

Of course, it was completely irrelevant that she had spent one-eighth the time she would usually spend on a serious portrait, hence the result being somewhat more disastrous than usual. If he wanted a portrait, he'd _get_ a portrait. She'd never said anything about it resembling the subject...

"Hn." His brain needed some serious disciplining, if the way it was dancing irrational circles in pure glee was anything to go by. It wasn't like he had anything to be happy about, at any rate.

Seriously.

His train of thought (totally unrelated to math, as he noted absently) was broken when Maika's phone rang.

"_Doushite kimi wo suki ni natte shimattan darou..."_

He raised a quizzical eyebrow at her ringtone.

"What? They _did_ get first on the Oricon charts, so it's not just me who has bad taste. So there!"

"...I didn't say anything..."

"Whatever," She stuck out her tongue at him, flipping open her phone. "You didn't have to. Hello?"

"...why are you calling me?"

Tezuka blinked. _Talk about impolite..._

"Dinner? Parents?" Her brow furrowed. "I can't quite hear you, Atobe. Speak louder, for goodness' sake!"

"_Gosh, it wouldn't hurt to say please, you know."_ She could almost imagine him rolling his eyes at her. "_Dinner tomorrow night, in the gardens._"

She made a face. "Gardens? But there'll be mosqui – "

"_See you."_

A string of curses followed from her side, almost drowning out the persistent beeping tone that told her _oh-so-politely_ that Atobe Keigo had, for all effects and purposes, hung up on her.

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On the other end of the line, a certain grey-haired boy was left with the phone in one hand, a Picasso-like painting of something that looked vaguely like a distorted monkey in the other, and a very bemused expression on his face.

"...what did I just do?"

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"Tezuka?" There was a speculative note in her voice.

"Hn."

"What do you think of Atobe?"

He nearly spat out his food. "What?!"

She looked at him somewhat curiously, wondering how her question had warranted such an extraordinary response. "Well, I was just thinking – you've known him for a long time, right?"

When Tezuka looked like he was about to protest, she cut him off. "Well, longer than me, at any rate. So logically speaking, you'd know him better than I do, wouldn't you? What would you say his character is like?"

"..."

The burning question at the tip of his tongue refused to go away, and he finally succumbed to it. "Why?"

It was her turn to look blank. "Why what?"

Sometimes he really wondered just how her brain worked, so much so that it couldn't even make the most logically obvious connections. "Why are you suddenly so interested in Atobe?"

"Oh, it's nothing, really! It's just that our families seem really keen to get - _unified_," Maika was talking fast, he realised. _Really_ fast. "But it's okay, 'cause he doesn't like me and I don't like him either and so nothing's gonna happen! Forget I said anything."

"..."

"Remember, forget what I just said, okay?"

"...okay."

They turned back to their respective bentos, and Tezuka began eating mechanically without even thinking about it. Instead, his mind was going over what Maika had, ironically enough, just told him to forget, and he suddenly realised something amidst growing alarm.

Family wishes were pretty much the law in Japan. Which would mean – according to Maika, and he hoped to goodness she was mistaken – she was going to change her name soon, and not to Tezuka either.

_Wait a moment. Where did that come from?_

It wasn't like he _wanted_ to get marr - He stopped that thought firmly in its tracks, and concentrated very hard instead on picking out every single grain of rice from his almost-empty lunchbox.

Maika was looking at him with a queer expression on her face. "You know, Tezuka, if you're really hungry, you could just have _asked_. I still have about half my lunch left."

"...I'm _not_ hungry."

''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

Tennis practice had just finished, and all the regulars save Tezuka were busy packing. After checking that Tezuka was safely occupied by Ryuuzaki-sensei, Fuji decided it was time to put his plan into action.

He strolled casually over to Momo, who was busy complaining how empty his stomach had been for the past hour and a half.

"Say, Momo... what _did_ you and Echizen do when I asked you to distract Hyoutei? I never bothered to ask - how impolite of me," Fuji chuckled.

Momo was seized with a sudden choking fit. "Uh... no, no... Not impolite at all... not at all..."

He looked around frantically for Ryoma, but the young boy had already squashed himself into the farthest available corner of the locker room. Being small _did_ have its uses after all.

"Uh... actually, we, uh, challenged some of them to a game at the street tennis courts, and we beat them all, and then, um... we... we went for burgers together!" Momo brightened considerably, inwardly congratulating himself on conjuring up such a believable tale. "That's it!"

In the corner, Ryoma huddled closer to the wall, resisting the urge to bang his head at Momo-sempai's absolutely _brilliant_ lie. Whatever happened now, it definitely wasn't going to be pretty.

"Souka." The honey-haired tensai smiled angelically at his beloved kouhai. "Since you've performed the task so efficiently, how 'bout I treat you to a round of burgers?"

Momo's eyes nearly fell out of his head. "Really?"

_Whoa._ Not only had he _escaped_ Fuji-sempai's punishment, he'd also earned himself a free meal! _Whoever said honesty is the best policy had obviously never tried lying before._

"Ja, let's go!" His bag was packed at lightning speed, and when he finally found Ryoma wedged in between a locker and the wall, he dragged the boy out with brute force. "Yah, Echizen! What are you playing hide-and-seek for? Let's go!"

Ryoma put his hands in his pockets. "Che... I'm busy. You can eat my share."

"_Really?_" For a split second, he wondered whether he had died and gone to heaven.

But before he could dash off to fulfill his true calling, Fuji-sempai's voice intruded itself into his pleasant daydreaming.

"Echizen's worked _so_ hard with you, distracting them and winning all those matches... I'm sure it mustn't have been easy to beat the whole Hyoutei team, right? Come on, let your sempai treat you, ne?" He slung a friendly arm over Ryoma's shoulder.

"...mada mada dane." Ryoma tried, with spectacular failure, to dislodge Fuji's arm.

"Saa, ikou!"

And their fate was sealed.

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Fuji looked at the two twitching bodies lying on the floor of the hamburger joint and smiled serenely, blissfully oblivious to the fact that the eyes of the thirty-odd customers were fastened on the fascinatingly terrifying scene before them.

"Don't forget to invite me the next time you decide to eat burgers with an invisible Hyoutei team, ne?" His grin was positively evil. "Ja, mata ashita!"

And the brunette exited the fast food parlour, looking for all the world like a harmless student returning from a long day at school.

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_Notes:_

_Doushite kimi wo suki ni natte shimattandarou - Why did I fall in love with you? (It's a DBSK song, but it's going to be of some importance in the later chapters, so no, I did not put it in just because DBSK sings it. .. It's hasn't been released yet, so the no. 1 Oricon chart spot is just, uh... fiction. For now, at least. ;P)_

_Saa, ikou - Well, let's go!_

_Well, how was it? Do review, if only to tell me that you're still reading this story, 'kay? :P Have a great day!  
_


	19. Chapter 18

_I updated. Finally. XD_

_I'm really sorry for the super-long delay in getting this chapter out, but I've just finished month-long exams. I hope you'll find it in your heart to forgive me? ^_^ The good news, however, is that I've also done the next chapter, so it should be out pretty soon. Not to mention the fact that the story is FINALLY going somewhere. :D  
_

_Having said that, enjoy~!  
_

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"Maika, don't tell me you're going for the dinner dressed like _that_?"

She looked down at her dress, then at her indignant mother.

"But kaa-san, this _is_ what I always wear to dinners! You've never said anything about it before..."

Her mother smiled mysteriously. "But this isn't just _any_ dinner... come on, I'll make you up."

---------------------------

Which was how she ended up in front of the Atobe residence, wearing six-inch stilettos, a long flowing gown with a slit that went far too high up for her comfort, and mascara so heavy that it took a great deal of effort to even keep her eyelids up.

"Have fun, darling – and be sure to tell me all about it when you come home!" Her mother said brightly, poking her head out of the window.

Maika whirled around. "Kaa-san, you're not coming?"

"Nope, got work to do!" She winked, and revved up the engine.

"But – " Maika watched bewilderedly as the car sped off, leaving a trail of smoke behind. "I – "

The front door opened, and she came face to face with a very stout butler.

"Welcome, Tawako-sama. The young master is waiting for you." The butler bowed politely, and two maids immediately swept her off to the gardens.

_...what?_

-------------------------

Atobe ran a frustrated hand through his hair, nearly ruining the perfectly-styled curls as he did so. By Jove, she had to have the most abominable timing _ever_ in the entire world.

Every _single_ time he tried to lead up to it, she would inevitably bring up the most inane subject ever. _I mean, seriously. Whether the grass would look better short or long?_ He didn't know whether to be insulted or amused. In fact, if he didn't know better, he'd have thought that she was purposely going out of her way to avoid that topic at all costs.

But of course, he knew perfectly well that she didn't have any inkling of what would befall her tonight.

_Or would have befallen her already, if she hadn't been so persistently obtuse_, he added sourly.

He swallowed his rising temper and whatever pitiful remnants that remained of his severely damaged pride, and soldiered on bravely. After all, faint heart never won fair lady.

He winced at the loud slurping noise emitted from the other side of the table.

Not that Maika was exactly the epitome of a fair lady, either.

-----------------------------

Maika bit her lips nervously. She was starting to run out of subjects to distract Atobe, and unless somebody did something – _soon­_ – she was going to have either start regurgitating whatever pathetic facts that remained in her brain after a cursory perusal of the history textbook (which pretty much amounted to all the studying she had done this year) or to use her last resort, which was to scream her lungs out until every single maid and butler in the Atobe household came rushing out to see if everything was alright. Which it was, of course, if you discounted the fact that she and Atobe were the only two living souls in a totally deserted garden (which happened to be full of rose bushes, as Atobe had conveniently demonstrated by plucking a scarlet rose for her) and that they were having a perfectly _civilised_ conversation that, somehow, in one way or another, kept veering towards a particularly dangerous topic. She groaned mentally. If Atobe said _like_ one more time in a way that involved a certain pair of eyes artfully directed at her, she'd slap him until he turned a very pretty purple. She'd make _sure_ of that.

It wasn't that she didn't _like_ (there she went, using that darned word again) those sentiments, it was just... She scowled darkly. It was just... very uncomfortable, to put it simply. And what the heck was she supposed to do if he out and told her that he, well, _liked_ her? Of course, to be completely honest, that was just an assumption that was probably ridiculously implanted in her head thanks to her mother's not-so-subtle efforts to get them together. For all she knew, it could just be hormones messing with her head...

"Maika," His unquestionably masculine voice announced itself behind her, and she nearly fell out of her chair in surprise. Since when did he get so near her? He was _far_ too close for comf – _what is he doing?!_

He tilted her chin so she was looking straight up at him, and her mouth immediately went into ultra-panic mode, throwing out the first thing that came to mind. "Look! A UF - _mmph_!"

A hand clamped down on her mouth, effectively rendering any insults she might have hurled at him completely useless. She settled instead for glaring at him.

"_Maika._" Stern grey eyes shot lasers at her, and for the first time in her life, she felt the full weight of the Buchou GlareTM , one which she hadn't thought anybody but Tezuka possessed. However, being buchou of Hyoutei Gakuen's tennis team had apparently honed Atobe's skill to perfection. She shut up almost automatically.

"Maika," He took a deep breath to calm his nerves, telling himself that it was perfectly silly for _Atobe Keigo_ to be feeling nervous when confessing his feelings to a girl. "I need to tell you something."

"Eh?" She replied intelligently.

"I...uh..." _You can do this, I know you can..._ "IthinkIlikeyou."

"...what?" He had obviously gone for some prestigious speed-talking classes which specialised in making oneself as _un_understandable as possible, and passed with flying colours. Or so she surmised.

"I." He paused, convincing himself that he could do this. He was _Atobe Keigo_, for goodness' sake! Atobe Keigo was _never_ nervous. _Calm and composed, that's it, calm and composed..._

_Breathe in._

_Breathe out._

"I." Gulp. "_Like._ You."

There. He'd said it. Slowly and clearly, with perfect enunciation so that even the dumbest ass in the world would be able to decipher it – and Maika definitely wasn't that, if the way she managed to cook up insults as fast as he could send a tennis ball hurtling was anything to go by.

Although the glassy, blank look in her eyes was almost enough to make him retract that thought.

"Maika? Are you alrig – "

Her deer-caught-in-headlights look suddenly gave way to one of pure terror, and she was already halfway out of the garden before he recovered enough to give chase.

"Wait! Maika! _Maika!!_"

--------------------------------

The mistress of the house raised an eyebrow as her son, looking slightly wild and disheveled, entered the house – _without Maika_, she noticed – and stalked straight past her, heading for his room.

Her eyes narrowed. He wasn't going to get away that easily.

"Keigo, how did it go?"

He froze in his tracks and turned to face his mother with excruciating slowness. "Uh... do I _have _to answer that?"

"_Keigo._"

If there was one thing Atobe Keigo was the tiniest bit afraid of, it was getting into his mother's bad books. He had discovered from a very young age that she had _a lot_ of power, and she was not the least bit hesitant to use it to teach her only son certain _things_ that "were for his own good", according to her.

He sighed. "I don't know. She ran away."

"...she _ran_ away?"

He wondered if he hadn't better follow Maika's lead if he wanted to survive the night in one piece – if that glint in his mother's eye was anything to go by, at any rate.

"_Atobe_._ KEIGO."_

He didn't wait any longer.

The heir apparent to Atobe Corporation, Inc., one of the most influential companies in Japan, fled for his life.

-----------------------------------------

"You have _got_ to be kidding me." Maika's mother slumped down in distress. "She _ran away?!_"

Atobe's mother looked up in surprise. "Didn't she tell you?"

"I wish!" She snorted. "The day Maika tells me something about boy problems is the day the world comes to an end."

"Ah..."

They lapsed into silence.

"So... it's hopeless, then?"

Atobe's mother sat up. "Of course not! Nobody, and _nobody_ messes with the mothers and gets away with it! We'll show them how matchmaking is done – and we'll come out triumphant in the end!"

Maika's mother frowned. _It's easy for HER to talk - she's not the one having to handle a PMS-ing daughter..._

"But what else can we do?"

"Let me see." The mistress of the Atobe household contemplated the question for a long moment, before her eyes suddenly lit up. "I've got it! How about some detective work?"

Her evil counterpart grinned devilishly. "Bring it on!"

"It's simple, really. Is there anyone Maika has been seeing a lot of lately?"

Maika's mother tapped her lips, pondering the question.

"More specifically, any _boy_?"

"Oh! _That_ way..." She finally caught the drift. "Other than Keigo-chan, I don't really think there's anyone she's been talking to much – except at school, of course..." She trailed off, and her eyes narrowed. "Actually, Maika _has_ mentioned someone..."

"Someone...?" Atobe's mother prompted, suddenly sitting bolt upright. Who could challenge – and _defeat_ her dear Keigo?

"Yeah... his name was... aish, what was his name again? Te – Temuka? Teruka? Or something like that..." She chuckled sheepishly. "I usually just think of him as Homework Boy, since he always brings her homework when she's sick."

"_Who?!_" Heck, it wasn't even anyone from among their circles! Just who did this Teruka think he was, anyway? "Are you _sure_ she likes him?"

"Wha – no!" Maika's mother nearly spat out her tea. "I mean, she _does_ talk about him rather frequently, but it's always in the most derogatory of terms, so I'm sure she doesn't like him! Ehehehe..."

_Although you can never tell with Maika..._

"There _is_ another boy, though... she's only mentioned him once or twice, but I remember him because I saw his picture. He was _sooooo_ cute! I really wouldn't mind having a go at him myself," She grinned, forgetting for a moment that she was trying to solve the mystery of Maika's shadow boyfriend.

Atobe's mother spluttered in the midst of a dainty sip.

"_WHAT?!"_

Her next sentence was barely more reassuring.

"If I weren't already married, of course..."

---------------------------------

Five kilometres away, a certain honey-haired tensai sneezed into his handkerchief.

"...that's odd. I don't remember nee-san predicting a cold at all..."

----------------------------------

Tezuka did _not_ want to know why there were dark rings around Maika's eyes.

Of course not.

No, _really. _It was none of his business, anyway. Besides, prying into another person's life was just plain impolite, as he reminded himself pointedly.

He settled for a sigh, sinking deeper into the chair as he tried to chase away images of Atobe and Maika doing _–cough­- things_ together until the wee hours of the morning – things that only _he_ should be allowed to do to her –

_Wait. What the heck was that?_

He looked over to where Maika was sitting, zoning off into space.

Why did he care so much, anyway?

--------------------------------

Maika, on the other hand, wasn't paying attention to her surroundings at all, least of all the human ice block sitting beside her. She hated the feeling of not being in control of her life, and she was currently feeling supremely lost at the moment.

_Why..._

_Why?_

_WHY?_

She wasn't even sure what she was asking herself anymore – why he liked her, or why she ran away, or –

Why _did_ she do that, anyway?

Logically speaking, Atobe would have been the perfect catch.

_Sure, he's narcissistic, his ego's the size of the moon, but – for all that, he's not half bad. He's quite a decent guy, when you get right down to the basics._

Then why did she react that way?

She groaned. Another question to add to the flood that was already tormenting her. Great. Just _great._

--------------------------------

"Why is it that I feel even more stupid than when I came to school in the morning?" She grumbled, packing away her things. "Gosh, what's the point of coming to school if it's simply going to make me more dumb?"

Tezuka watched her quizzically, wondering whether to answer a clearly rhetorical question just for the sake of saying _something_. It had been – to put it simply –_ unnerving_ to sit next to her the whole day without so much as a single inane comment coming out of her mouth.

He finally gave in to his burning desire that had been festering ever since the beginning of school.

"Maika, are you alright?"

She looked up blankly. "Yeah... why wouldn't I be?"

"..."

On the whole, he didn't think she'd take "Oh, because you weren't making stupid comments and disturbing me the whole time as usual," very kindly. So he listened to his self-preservation instincts and shut up instead.

She heaved a sigh of exasperation. "Wouldn't expect anything less from the resident iceman of Seigaku, of course." It was mean, but she wasn't particularly in the mood to sugarcoat anything at the moment.

_Bad mood much?_

He watched her quizzically, as she stumbled out of class – and smack into Atobe.

------------------------------------

"Oof!" The chest she walked into was too hard for its own good. "Look where you're going, you muscl – _Atobe?!_"

Their eyes met, and a deep, dark flush began to spread over her face.

"I – I – "

"Maika, I need to talk to you." His eyes flickered towards the emptying classroom, where Tezuka was noticeably still present. "In private."

----------------------------

Tezuka nearly choked when he saw Maika letting herself be led obediently away by Atobe.

_Someone's definitely unwell..._

-------------------------------

"Atobe, I – "

"Maika." He looked at her for a long moment, so long that she began to flush as red as a tomato.

"Y-yes?"

It was supremely difficult to get out the next few words, but he managed it.

"It's Tezuka, isn't it?"

"It's – _EH?! WHAT?! NO!_ Wait, _what's_ Tezuka?"

"He's the reason you ran away last night." Atobe's face was turned away from hers, and he actually sounded – if only for a moment – _mature_.

It was amazing how her brain managed to come up with snide comments at the most inopportune moments, really.

He turned to face her, his eyes piercing her. "Isn't that the truth?"

"W-what? No!" She stammered. "I mean, it's not like I like him or anything, so why should I run away because of him? You're not making any sense!"

"Heh," He smirked. "So I still have a chance?"

She blinked. "A chance to what?"

_Oh. _

_My._

_God. _

_HOW ON EARTH CAN ANYONE BE SO EXCEEDINGLY BLUR?!_

He exploded. "To make you like me, you _idiot_!"

"..._what_ did you just call me?"

Funny thing, evolution. It chose to leave humans without a tail (the coccyx doesn't count), and a sense of balance that leaves something to be desired, but one thing it did make sure of was that every member of its species possessed the instincts that would ensure its survival...

Atobe Keigo took one look at the fire smouldering in her eyes, and following those age-old instincts, turned and ran for his life.

-------------------------------------

_So how was it? Gimme a holler if you're still reading this, ne? Review! =]_


	20. Chapter 19

_Here's the next installment of The Iceman Cometh! - have fun!_

------------------------------------

_It's Tezuka, isn't it?_

She was _so_ going to get Atobe for this. Why couldn't he give her a moment's peace instead of asking stupid questions that attached themselves firmly in her mind and refused to go away, even after she threatened to bash them out? (Never mind that she'd be battering her own brains in the process).

_Why does everyone keep asking me whether it's Tezuka or not, anyway? Do I even LOOK like I like him?_

_-Flashback-_

"Okaeri!" Her mom was very cheerful. _Too_ cheerful, in fact. "Are you thirsty? I made some juice for you."

"_You_ made some juice?!" The tone of disbelief was clearly evident.

"I mean, the factory made it, but I poured it out for you... so, drink up!" Her mother replied brightly, handing her a glass which might have contained Inui's most toxic juice, by the looks of it.

"Okay..." She gave the glass one last suspicious glance before downing it.

_Ah, it's orange juice. _

"Thanks, kaa-san."

Her mother seated herself on a nearby chair. "By the way, Maika, I'd like to ask you something about that boy..."

She should have known there would be a catch. Not feeling particularly gracious at the moment, she asked resignedly, "What about Atobe?"

"Eh? No, not Keigo... the _other_ one, the one who brought your homework while you were sick." Her mom looked faintly discomfited.

_I wonder what she's up to..._

"Oh, Tezuka... What about him?"

"Anou... how do you feel about him?"

_How do I feel about him? What kind of question is that?_

"He's... Tezuka." There wasn't any way to describe him in her mind – he was just, well, just _Tezuka_. "Why?"

"No! I mean," Her mother sounded slightly frustrated. "Do you like him?"

The orange juice somehow managed to make its way up her nostrils and out of her nose.

"_WHAT?!_"

_-End flashback-_

She could positively feel a headache the size of Africa coming on.

_You'd think I'm giving out some kind of I-like-Tezuka-can't-you-see-it? aura, the way they harp on it!_

But she didn't like him at all – _that_ way or not. He was unsociable, boring, stubborn, rigidly old-fashioned – and he was annoyingly, always, _always_ right.

...then why did she react that way every time someone mentioned his name?

She frowned. There was only one person to turn to, in times of such emotional distress. That he had the answer, she had no doubt. As to whether he would give it to her... well, that was a different matter altogether.

She shrugged.

_As they say, better to try and fail than never to have tried at all._

But with Fuji Syuusuke in the picture, she should have known better than to trust a mere saying. He was never really one to believe in proverbs, anyway.

-------------------------------------------------

Tezuka was not in a good mood.

In fact, he was in a _very_ bad temper.

And the tennis team wasn't exactly helping either. He looked – or rather, glared over at where Eiji was happily sniggering over the latest school gossip with Fuji and twitched.

"Kikumaru. Fuji. Ten laps."

"N-nya? But – "

"Twenty."

"But it's not even – "

"_Thirty._"

"Eiji, let's go." Fuji decided to step in, pulling Eiji into a slow jog before he got them assigned a thousand laps.

"But he just gave us time-out!" Eiji protested in a frantic whisper.

Fuji looked over at the taller brunette, who was currently occupied in punishing everyone who even dared to open his mouth. "Saa, maybe Tezuka's having... _problems_."

Upon hearing this, the energetic redhead immediately brightened. "What problems, hoi? Fujiko, tell me!"

The only answer he got was a mysterious smile.

"Fujiko..." He whined. "Tell me what sort of problems Tezuka has!"

"_Kikumaru._ _Fifty laps_."

Fuji nearly laughed at the sudden expression of horror on his friend's face. "Maybe I should've warned you that Tezuka was just around the corner..."

----------------------------------------------

"O-i-shi!" Kikumaru Eiji bounced into the class, not unlike a child on an extreme sugar high. "Let's go eat together, nya!"

The said boy smiled fondly at his doubles partner. "Hai! Just wait a moment while I give this to Tezuka, okay?"

He placed the stack of exercise books on the table belonging to a certain tennis team captain who was currently, by the looks of it, extremely focused on finishing up the essay due in a fortnight's time. Talk about being a workaholic.

"Tezuka, would you mind giving this to sensei after the break?"

The brunette didn't even look up from his paper. "Hn."

Oishi managed to get out a rushed 'thank you' before being dragged away by an overly hyper Eiji.

"Say, Oishi," Eiji looked over his shoulder at the furiously writing Tezuka. "Do you think something's wrong with Tezuka?"

Tezuka twitched. Kikumaru's whisper, however quietly he tried to speak, was clearly audible from where he was sitting.

"I mean, he's super-scary today! Mou, he even gave me laps just for _talking_ to Fuji! I asked Fuji about it, but he said there was nothing to worry about – Tezuka's probably just PMS-ing. But can boys PMS, Oishi? I thought only girls did..."

Reminding himself not to crush the pen – because it was his favourite, and it would be a total waste of good ink – Tezuka made a mental note to give Fuji extra laps the next time practice came around.

Seventy laps sounded about right.

Rather unfortunately, he managed to catch Oishi's faint answer as the duo exited the classroom.

"Ah, I'm not too sure about that... but you're right. Tezuka hasn't been acting normally these few days." There was a slight pause, and from three years' worth of experience Tezuka knew instantly that Oishi was going into mother-hen mode.

"Oh Eiji, I've been such a bad friend – obliviously going on with my own life while Tezuka's in the midst of a gender crisis! Do you think we should tell the school counselor?"

The twitch developed into a full-blown tic.

_Why me?_

----------------------------------------------

It was break time, and Ryoma was not particularly thrilled to see Atobe Keigo at their school – once again.

"What's Monkey King doing here?"

Momo glanced at the direction where Ryoma vaguely indicated, and glimpsed the said object.

"Maybe he wants to challenge Tezuka-buchou to a game?" The spiky-haired power player shrugged. He had better things to do than to find out why Atobe was suddenly so interested in their school – it was break time, after all, and break time meant _food_.

He was just about to take a large bite out of his burger when Ryoma nudged him. "Momo-senpai, you might actually be right for once in your life. He's standing outside buchou's class."

"Of course I'm ri – _HEY_! Whaddya mean I might actually be right for _once_ in my life?!"

The freshman swiped his burger and chomped into it.

"...mada mada dane, Momo-senpai."

--------------------------------------------

"Finally!" She wheezed, sounding for all the world like a chronically asthmatic old lady with creaky joints. She had run the whole school looking for Fuji, only to find him serenely eating his lunch on the roof – of all places.

"Ah, Maika-chan! What can I do for you?" His smile was absolutely dazzling.

"Uh... um... I... ah..." She hesitated. "Well, this is kind of weird, but there's no one else I can ask, and since you're a tensai, I was wondering if you could help me out..."

He waited patiently, his face the picture of innocence.

"How do you know if you like someone?" She blurted out the question before she could rethink her decision to ask Fuji.

The brunette hesitated for a moment before replying with twinkling eyes, "I think that's a question best answered by Tezuka. After all, he does have some experience in that department, ne?"

Maika choked. "_Tezuka?!_"

Fuji grinned at her. "Just trust me."

He was about to turn around and walk off when he caught a glimpse of something interesting out of the corner of his eye. Something _very_ interesting, indeed.

"Then again, Maika-chan, I guess I could always _show_ you what it's like..." He grinned mischievously, and leaned closer towards her.

"F-fuj - !"

The sudden sensation of soft lips pressed against her own made her eyes shoot wide open, only to meet with two very blue eyes sparkling straight back at her. Fuji was obviously enjoying himself way too much to be legal, whatever he was trying to do.

_...this is so NOT happening._

A few dumbfounded seconds passed before Fuji abruptly detached himself from her to smile at someone behind them.

"Ah, Tezuka! How unexpected!"

_...Tezuka?!_

_Oh._

_OH._

_Shit._

----------------------------------------------

_Heh. So how was it? Review! ^_^_


	21. Chapter 21

_Hey all! _

_I've been superbly busy ever since school started, and am probably going to continue being busy for another few weeks yet - so the next chapter might take a while. __This chapter's actually been in storage since the end of last year (don't kill me!), and I never thought to put it up until my friend rather... pointedly reminded me. XD I am obviously hopeless at remembering things._

_Anyways, a short recap of the previous chapter's momentous events, and I hope you enjoy this chapter!_

_**Recap**_

"Then again, Maika-chan, I guess I could always _show_ you what it's like..." He grinned mischievously, and leaned closer towards her.

"F-fuj - !"

The sudden sensation of soft lips pressed against her own made her eyes shoot wide open, only to meet with two very blue eyes sparkling straight back at her. Fuji was obviously enjoying himself way too much to be legal, whatever he was trying to do.

_...this is so NOT happening._

A few dumbfounded seconds passed before Fuji abruptly detached himself from her to smile at someone behind them.

"Ah, Tezuka! How unexpected!"

_...Tezuka?!_

_Oh._

_OH._

_Shit._

--------------------------------------

Tezuka froze. He had merely come out to the roof for some fresh air, and of all the things he had expected to see, this was definitely _not_ one of them.

_Fuji... kissing Maika?!_

His hands clenched into fists at his side.

_First Atobe, now Fuji... _

It seemed like forever before the tensai finally straightened up, and saw him standing there.

"Ah, Tezuka!" The smile Fuji offered him was almost predatory, and he could've sworn he saw a flash of devilish blue in that instant. "How unexpected!"

The honey-haired boy turned to Maika. "Well, I'll just be off, then. Don't forget what I said earlier, ne?"

He winked at her, and Tezuka had to restrain himself from punching Fuji's too-innocent face.

"Fuji. A hundred laps around the court. _Now._"

"...whatever for, Tezuka-_buchou_?"

"_Just do it_." He gritted out from between clenched teeth.

"Anything you say, Tezuka-_buchou_," Fuji sing-songed as he strolled away, leaving the happy couple alone.

Although happy probably wasn't quite the right word...

"T-tezuka!" Maika scrambled up, trying to gather her scattered wits around her. "W-when did you come?"

"Hn."

Under normal circumstances, she'd probably have chewed him up for such an unsatisfactory answer, but then today hadn't exactly been normal, either. She'd just been kissed by the school's resident tensai and pretty boy, and quite possibly in the presence of one Tezuka Kunimitsu...

She groaned. Why didn't the earth just open up and swallow her already? At least she'd be spared of any further humiliation.

There was a long, awkward silence.

"I – ah – I – " She tried desperately to salvage the situation. "I – Fuji – I – it wasn't my fault!"

"Aa." Even his monosyllabic answers were getting shorter and more curt by the second.

"No, I mean – I – he – _argh!_" Fuji was so, very, _very_ dead. "He kissed – I didn't do – I mean, I – why am I explaining it to you, anyway?"

"..."

Tezuka didn't really know what to say. He'd just seen his friend kiss his – well, Maika technically wasn't his, but who cared – girl, and he needed to hit something_ – _badly_._ He didn't know why, but –

Okay, fine. He was jealous. So what?

*and we pause for a moment to solemnly applaud the Seigaku captain's long-delayed epiphany.*

"Tezuka, I – " She stopped, looking extremely uncomfortable. Searching for something to say and finding absolutely nothing, she gave up. "I'll see you later!"

And she dashed away before he could even so much as bat an eyelid.

-------------------------------------------------

She didn't stop running, not until she was safely far, far away from civilisation and from any other possible means of humiliation.

"Maybe I should just have hit him really hard. Then he'd have thought it was a hallucination..." She mused aloud to the koi swimming peacefully amidst the green seaweed. But she'd been too mortified to think of it at that particular point in time, and besides, she was quite sure her arm would break before she even managed to give Tezuka any sort of concussion whatsoever. So she had run away instead.

Speaking of which, she began to realise that she'd been running away a lot. She'd run away from Atobe, and now she was currently busy running from Tezuka...

She frowned. This was getting somewhat ridiculous. After all, she was going to _have_ to see Tezuka sometime soon, seeing as how they were in the same class, _sitting next to each other – _

As if right on cue, the bell rang.

She groaned. Today was definitely _not_ her day.

--------------------------------------------------

"The Kyoto Protocol was signed at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janerio, Brazil..."

_Fuji._

_Maika._

_Fuji... and Maika._

_No. _

_NO._

"...reduction of greenhouse gases..."

_Not good._

"Now, can anyone tell me again where the Kyoto Protocol was signed?"

The teacher's eagle eyes scanned the room for inattentive students to torture – and landed on a perfect specimen.

"Tawako!"

Tezuka stifled a small sigh as Maika very nearly fell off her chair in surprise. After all the times he'd told her off for not paying attention in class...

_She never listens, does she?_

"H-hai, sensei!"

The teacher raised an eyebrow. "Answer the question, please."

There was a long, blank silence.

Somebody obviously didn't know the answer... if she even knew the question at all.

"Ah... um..."

He felt her pleading gaze land upon him, and studiously ignored it. If she hadn't been listening, it was her own fault. She'd have to deal with the consequences herself.

_But..._

_No buts._

_She'll hate you for this, you know._

_..._

His inner devil was obviously working overtime today.

_That's right, she won't talk to you for a few days, at the very least._

_...either way, we're not on talking terms at the moment, _he pointed out.

But his devil was not about to be defeated so easily. _So think of it as a peace offering._

He groaned mentally as he slid the paper over to her desk, quite intentionally poking her hard with it. If he was going to let her corrupt his morals, then he might as well make her suffer for it – thoroughly.

"OU – oh!" She glanced at Tezuka in pure astonishment.

"I'm still waiting, Tawako." The teacher tapped his pen rather impatiently.

Maika straightened up at once. "Hai, sensei! The answer's Rio de Janerio."

The teacher glared at her suspiciously. "And where is Rio de Janerio?"

"Uh..."

"..."

"..."

She smiled sheepishly. "...Argentina?"

_Uh-oh..._ The look on the teacher's face meant that she was maybe, possibly wrong...

...probably, more like.

She looked at Tezuka.

_Oh._

Definitely wrong, then.

_Whoops..._

---------------------------------------------------------

_Differentiate it... five x to the power of three minus eight x plus six... equals..._

_...Maika and Fuji._

_What?! NO!_

_Focus._

_Focus._

"FOCUS." Tezuka growled at himself, running an agitated hand through his already messy hair.

It was half past five in the evening, and he was getting increasingly frustrated. He should have finished his homework at least an hour ago, according to his usual schedule. For goodness' sake, he should be out there perfecting his backhand shot already!

But no, thanks to a particularly distracting scene which insisted on replaying itself in his head over and over again, he was stuck here doing homework when he could have been outside practising tennis.

It wasn't like he hadn't tried to ignore it and concentrate on math instead. And it _would_ have succeeded – if he hadn't kept breaking his pencil lead every time he watched Fuji kiss Maika all over again. Now _that_ was just plain annoying.

It didn't make sense for such a trivial thing to affect him like that, though. Why should it?

_But you like her. Duh._

...that stupid inner devil of his plainly lived to torture him.

_I do __**not**_**.**

_Oh yes, you do. _

_Impossible._

But that maddening voice in his head refused to shut up. So he did the next best thing he could – he took out an encyclopaedia and flipped straight to **Love.**

"Signs and symptoms of love..." He muttered, feeling a little foolish. But still, anything to prove the mini-devil!Tezuka wrong.

_Easily distracted, unable to focus... always thinking about their loved one..._

He read the rest of the article with growing dismay, all the while jotting down important notes in his impeccable handwriting. When he had finished, he picked up the impromptu checklist he had just created and stared at it in horrified fascination.

He fit every single item on the list – except the easily blushing part, but it was scanty comfort when the other twenty-four criteria were jumping out at him, saying, "You're in lo-o-ove~"

Hypothesis... rejected.

Tezuka groaned. His scientific method had failed him spectacularly.

_But that can't be true... it can't – it just can't be!_

But encyclopaedias never lied...

_There must be something wrong. A misprint? Out-of-date publication?_

Maybe he'd get it all cleared up when he played tennis – playing a worthy opponent always helped him think better.

He thought of Fuji.

Then again, maybe not.

-----------------------------------------------------

"Fuji-Kawamura versus Oishi-Eiji. Momoshiro against Kaidoh. Inui, oversee the training." Tezuka, seemingly oblivious to the fact that the regulars had just run fifty laps in record time, was giving out orders not unlike a drill sergeant. A full night's sleep hadn't exactly improved his temper, unfortunately for the rest of the team.

"Echizen." The freshman looked up, cat-eyes gleaming in anticipation. "Follow me."

Fuji watched the shorter boy trail Tezuka unsuspectingly to the last court, and for once – he didn't envy Ryoma. Playing Tezuka in this state was not particularly high on his list of Important Things To Do Before I Die, but it would probably be the _last_ thing he'd be able to accomplish on that list if he faced Tezuka at the moment. And no matter how sadistic he might be, Fuji valued his life a lot. After all, think of all the years wasted – all those years of torturing poor, unsuspecting human innocents...

"...Fuji-kun?" Taka-san asked tentatively. Fuji's smile was sending shivers to his stomach, and not in a good way either.

The honey-haired tensai's smile returned to its normal width, and his doubles partner let out a silent sigh of relief.

"Ah, shall we start?"

---------------------------------------------------------

Tezuka sighed. He'd creamed Ryoma, and he had to admit that it felt good to know that he could still beat the cocky freshman without dropping a single point.

But that hadn't solved his problem. What was he going to do about Maika?

_I don't lov – like her. _

_Of course you don't._ That exasperating voice that lived in his head was literally dripping with sarcasm. _You don't want to have anything to do with her, you don't care what she does, who she kisses – _

_I. Don't. _He gritted his teeth. _I'm just concerned._

Tezuka sat bolt upright. Of course!

_I don't __**like**__ her - I'm just being civil. It's what any normal human would do._

After all, Fuji was an indisputably evil person. What if he was just toying with Maika? As a friend, Tezuka had a duty – a _responsibility_ to keep tabs on his sadistic teammate so he didn't hurt anyone by his actions. It was something that needed to be done, and Tezuka Kunimitsu was never one to shirk his duties.

Tezuka suddenly felt a lot better.

He turned back to his long-abandoned homework, and started calculating problems. Maybe today he could finish early and spend a little more time working out the schedule for the upcoming tournament.

_Tennis. _

_Fuji. _

_...Maika._

His pencil lead broke.

"..."

It was going to be a _long_ night.

--------------------------------------------------------

_So how was it? *fidgets nervously* Do review if you're still reading, ne?_

_Until the next chapter, have a great day! ^_^_


	22. Chapter 22

_I'm really sorry for being so late, but I just finished my exams last week (extra subjects = non-existent holidays D:), and I got stuck writing the first part of this chapter. -.- Ah well~ at least now I have a bit of the next chapter written as well. XD_

_My beta and I were both very tired, so please forgive us for the pure crack in this chapter. I hope you enjoy it, and don't forget to give me a poke if you're still reading, 'kay? ^_^_

_P/S: And thanks for all the reviews~ Every single review really makes my day! *huggles all readers* ;)_

**_Recap from previous chapter_**

_Tennis. _

_Fuji. _

_...Maika._

His pencil lead broke.

"..."

It was going to be a long night.

------------------------------------------------------------

Tawako Kamaika was currently very, _very_ annoyed.

"But darling, why don't you want to? It's just for one week! Your dad and I are going out of town, and you have _school_ the next day – you need to stay _somewhere_..."

Now, this was very sound logic, and she wouldn't normally have kicked up such a fuss about such a trivial thing. And she wouldn't have – if her mother had not chosen to dump her at the _Atobe_ residence, of all places.

And of course, anything which involved the Atobe household was a ominous sign of terrible, terrible horrors to come – usually in the form of Atobe Keigo.

"Kaa-san, can't I just stay at home? I'm almost an adult now, and it's not like anyone's going to come in and mug me..."

Her mother huffed in frustration. "What's wrong with staying with Atobe-san? It's not like you don't spend a lot of time there anyway – it's almost like a second home to us. I really can't understand why you're being so difficult about this!"

And the worst thing about it was that her mother was right – she _didn't_ have a reasonable excuse to offer.

_Because the last time I went there Atobe Keigo told me he liked me and I freaked out and -_

Definitely not an acceptable answer.

"He was kind enough to offer to let you stay, so you're jolly well going to be thankful and _stay_. Do you understand?"

She scowled. "Yes, kaa-san."

What she _didn't_ know, however, was that her mother had insisted on dragging her husband out of town for a week-long retreat just so the two patently unsuccessful matchmakers could throw both teens together for a few days. After all, if nothing else, they could always count on teenage hormones to take care of the job for them...

The elder Tawako grinned to herself in anticipation of the fail-proof plan. Atobe-san was in charge of logistics, and it was safe to say that she had quite a good idea of where _exactly_ in the Atobe mansion Maika would be staying for the next few days.

She cackled gleefully. Oh yes, life was good indeed.

-------------------------------------------------------------

"...and this is your room." The maid opened the door to a palatial suite that could only look at home in the Atobe estate. "If you need anything, please ring the bell."

She thanked the maid and walked into her room, stashing her luggage away in a random corner of the suite. This was one of the rooms she had never seen before – but then again, she usually only saw the wing reserved for guests.

Huh. So the rooms the Atobe family lived in were even _more_ opulent than the guest quarters. Go figure.

Oh well. First things first. Homework.

_Now... where on earth do I do my homework?_

She scanned the room, finally spotting what she had originally thought to be some random art sculpture but which turned out to be a supremely elaborate writing desk and chair. So she crossed over to the other side of the room, and made a very important discovery.

Not only did the chair _look_ like it was made of solid marble, it also apparently _weighed_ as much as solid marble.

"You – idiotic – _pant_ – stubborn – _pull – _stiff-necked – _heave_ – piece of wood! Just come OUT already!"

The chair remained smugly in place, and she felt a sudden urge to kick it – hard.

Which she did, and immediately spent the next two minutes hopping about on one foot, trying – and failing abysmally – to stifle the howls of agony that erupted from her mouth.

"You," She informed the chair frostily, with as much dignity as she could muster while nursing her poor, injured foot, "are going _down_."

Thus ensued a frantic tug-of-war with the chair, in which the chair was clearly claiming a very one-sided victory despite her best efforts to dislodge said artefact.

_Why is everything remotely connected with Atobe Keigo so infuriatingly stubborn?!_

She gave one final, forceful pull, and promptly lost her balance, landing unceremoniously on the hard, cold floor.

"Do you happen to hold a grudge against me?" She glared at the chair, which remained maddeningly silent. "Don't even _try_ to deny it."

All the same, she knew how to pick her battles, and headed towards the bed instead, giving the chair up as a demon-possessed piece of furniture whose sole purpose in life was to annoy her.

Which was why Atobe found her sprawled all over his bed when he came home from tennis practice, surrounded by what looked like a mountain of books and papers - and very, very much sound asleep.

---------------------------------------------------------

"You were _drooling_ on my pillow!"

"How was I to know it was _your_ pillow? It doesn't have your name written on it, does it?"

He eyed the offending object with equal parts horror and revulsion. "It's contaminated! Germified! How do you ever expect me to sleep on it again? And it was my _favourite _pillow too..."

She rolled her eyes. "Believe me, if I knew it was your pillow, I wouldn't have touched it with a ten-foot pole."

They both paused, and the sheer absurdity of the situation began to sink in.

"What were you doing in my room anyway?"

"_Your_ room?!"

"Well, yes." He looked at her as if she was crazy not to spot it immediately. "_My_ room. The one I use during the daytime."

"...you have two bedrooms?"

He blinked. "Don't you?"

"_Atobe_." Maika was sorely tempted to smack him. "_Nobody_ has two bedrooms."

She glanced at him, and then amended, "Well, nobody in their right mind, at least."

A moment of deceptively peaceful silence passed until...

"_HEY!_ I resent that statement!"

----------------------------------------------------------------------

They finally settled it by Maika shouting Atobe down and telling him that it was going to be a learning experience for him to cope with just one bedroom for a few days – just in case he ever had the misfortune to stay in a holiday villa that despite having tennis courts, a gymnasium, swimming pool, jacuzzi, a seaside view and state-of-the-art facilities, could only afford him a single bedroom.

Oh, the _horror_.

Maika was just about to point out that she would be very happy to go in his stead if he thought it beneath himself to stay in such a beautiful, seaside villa simply because it couldn't offer him two bedrooms when Atobe suddenly started.

"You didn't touch anything, did you?"

She looked at him blankly.

"...You do realise you were just accusing me of drooling on your pillow."

He shook his head impatiently. "Not the bed, the drawers. You didn't... go through them or anything like that, right?"

A mischievous grin crept across her face. "And so what if I did?"

"You _didn't!_" His face was scandalised.

"What? It's not like you have pictures of nude women in there..."

He flushed. "Of _course_ I don't!"

"What is it then?" She looked suspiciously at him. "Nude men?"

There was a sudden, profound silence, in which Atobe miraculously lost all ability to speak or form a single coherent word.

"Oh my... IT'S TEZUKA, ISN'T IT?!!"

If there was ever a time to have an apoplectic fit, this was it.

"..._WHAT?!_"

----------------------------------------------------

Tezuka was supremely unamused.

He had taken _five_ hours to do his homework last night.

_FIVE _hours. Almost _three_ times longer than it should have been.

His concentration was shot to bits, and with it went whatever little semblance of good temper he might have had. And it was all Fuji's fault.

He glared at the floor, imagining the tensai's grinning face painted under his feet - and immediately saw the shockingly pink glossy magazine page lying innocously on the floor. Which, of course, did absolute wonders for his mood.

_Not_.

Really, some students had absolutely no civic consciousness at all. Was it too much to ask people to throw things in a rubbish bin, where such offending articles obviously belonged?

As he leaned over to pick it up, the sparkly lettering caught his attention.

_10 Ways To Know If You're In Love With That Special Someone_

He did a double take. Surely that didn't say what he thought it said...? He frowned at it, wondering if there was even any point in trusting such a dubious-looking resource.

_No harm done, I guess..._

He picked it up, setting it gingerly on his desk.

---------------------------------------------

Outside the classroom, a certain redhead shared muted high-fives with a honey-haired boy.

"You were right, Fujiko! He picked it up!"

-------------------------------------------

"Say, Tezuka, could I borrow your book? _Please_?" Maika wheedled.

"You haven't done your homework." It wasn't even a question.

She frowned. It wasn't even _her_ fault... how could she possibly finish her homework when Atobe threw her out of the room with an injunction never to defile his brain again with such horrific images? (How was she to know what he kept in there anyway? Besides, it was his fault that she was thinking so much about Tezuka... what with his "It's Tezuka, isn't it?" question... of _course_ Tezuka's name would pop out! What did he expect?)

Oh well. If Tezuka wasn't going to give it to her, she'd just go and get it herself. After all, he hadn't exactly _forbidden_ her to take his book...

She grinned, and reached out a hand to pinch the prized book.

Just then, a gust of wind blew into the classroom.

A bright pink piece of paper fluttered to the floor, and Maika promptly forgot all about the book. Before Tezuka could reach out a hand to snatch the paper away, she bent down to retrieve it. She took one look at it – and very nearly died laughing.

He flinched, resisting the overwhelming urge to bury his head in his hands. Today was most definitely _not_ his day.

"You – you – " She giggled helplessly, looking between his dumbstruck face and the offending sheet of paper she was currently clutching in her hand. "Tezuka, why – _snort _– why on earth are _you_ – _giggle – _doing _love quizzes_ torn from a trashy magazine?"

Permission to crawl into hole... granted.

"I – " He opened his mouth to save whatever shreds of dignity he had left, and closed it again. Really, what could you say to such a question? The truth?

No, it was entirely too humiliating, and that would bring a confession of a different sort altogether. Something else. A lie, then.

_It's Fuji's. Say it's his. _He hadn't quite forgotten the PMS comment yet – nor the kiss.

...definitely not the kiss. Either way, this was a perfect chance for revenge.

_Go on, tell her it's Fuji's, and he left it when he stopped by our class. _

Except that Fuji hadn't, of course. And Maika would know, since she sat beside him. Trust Fuji to foil the most devious plan he had come up with in his life by pure inaction. So, the truth it was.

Glancing as impassively at Maika as was humanly possible – she was wiping away _tears of mirth_, for goodness' sake! It wasn't even _that_ funny – he started on an explanation which was sure to humiliate him further.

"I was – the encyclopaedia said I liked y – someone – " _Thank God for quick saves!_ " – but I didn't believe it, and I found this on the floor, so I just – "

But Maika had stopped listening to him after the fifth word or so.

"You - checked the – _encyclopaedia?!_" If she had been giggling before, she was quite literally howling with laughter now, clutching at her stomach in merriment.

" The _encyclopaedia_ _– _can't breathe – need air – "

He was utterly mortified.

And feeling completely helpless, he fixed her with the sternest Buchou Glare(TM) that he could muster.

She promptly burst into laughter again.

After taking refuge in the relative sanity of mathematical equations for a full five minutes, he finally composed himself into some semblance of normality and glanced back up with a little more dignity than before. Maika, he was thankful to note, had managed to sober up somewhat – although she still broke into occasional cackles of glee.

"So you think you like someone..."

He nearly groaned. Just as he thought she might be tactful enough to drop the subject - although knowing Maika, he shouldn't have been surprised. Tact was simply _not_ a word in her vocabulary.

"But who are you in love with?" She twinkled at him mischievously, and he had the sudden thought that Maika and Fuji might be long-lost cousins twice removed. "I never thought I'd see the day Tezuka Kunimitsu fell in love..."

"I'm _not_, I just thought – wait, who said anything about _love?!_"

"Is it Rin-chan? Akiha-chan?"

He pinched the bridge of his nose. _Must. Not. Bang. Head. Remember, it kills brain cells. _

_Resist._

_RESIST._

"Or perhaps Keiko? All the guys fawn over her, but ugh, I simply can't stand her..."

...actually, brain damage didn't sound too bad at the moment.

"Is it Mei-chan? She's really sweet, though I didn't think you'd like someone so docile – "

In fact, the prospect of injury was starting to look more and more attractive every passing second.

Her attempts to reel off the name of every single girl in their form suddenly halted, and he looked up to find Maika staring at him in what looked like – enlightenment?

_Oh dear._

He suddenly had a very, _very_ bad feeling about this.

"It's a boy, isn't it?"

His pencil lead broke.

"_WHAT?!_"

"Aha! I thought as much," She nodded her head wisely, as if she had just discovered gravity. "You can tell me, you know. I won't tell anyone. Is it Fuji?"

She thought he was _gay_.

She thought he was gay and in love with _Fuji._

...she was so, _so_ dead.

-------------------------------------------

_How was it? *waits nervously* XD_

_Review? =) _


	23. Chapter 23

_Hello! Sorry I took so long to update, but FFnet apparently doesn't like me - the moment I tried to upload the new chapter, the document manager gleefully rejected the chapter. -_______- Please don't slaughter me for being so remiss in updating... D: _

_Oh well, sorry once again, and, um, enjoy? _

* * *

_Recap from previous chapter_

"It's a boy, isn't it?"

His pencil lead broke.

"_WHAT?!_"

"Aha! I thought as much," She nodded her head wisely, as if she had just discovered gravity. "You can tell me, you know. I won't tell anyone. Is it Fuji?"

She thought he was _gay_.

She thought he was gay and in love with _Fuji._

...she was so, _so_ dead.

* * *

His eyes narrowed into slits, turning up his glare to laser-beam intensity.

"_Maika_."

She took one look at him, and gulped. Teasing him might be a favourite pastime of hers, but an extremely pissed off Tezuka Kunimitsu was not something she was quite prepared to handle all the same.

"Let me make this perfectly clear. I am _not_ in love, I am _not_ gay, and I am most definitely _not in love with Fuji!_"

"Okay, okay, you're not!" She scowled at him. "How was I supposed to know? It's not like you responded to any of the names I said..."

"Maybe because you _didn't_ say it," He suggested acidly.

She perked up immediately, and he groaned. Why couldn't he have kept his big mouth shut?

"So is it someone from Seigaku?"

He sighed and resigned himself to an unwanted game of Twenty Questions, wondering just when he had admitted to himself that he actually _liked_ someone. "Aa."

"Oh! Is she in our year – assuming it's a girl, of course..."

"Yes, _she's_ in our year." He shot her a dirty look, making sure to emphasise the 'she' very clearly.

She thought for a moment. "It's not anybody I mentioned just now?"

Tezuka was stumped for a moment. On one hand, she had mentioned at least three-quarters of the girls in third year already. But then again, what were the odds that she'd remember who she had said?

He decided to be honest. "No."

"Ah," She paused for one blessed moment – and immediately began a barrage of names.

_...so much for not remembering._

He listened without interrupting – after all, he could always tell her that she'd missed _someone_ – and she'd probably go crazy trying to find out who she'd skipped.

Now _that_ was a pleasant thought.

Five minutes later...

"But Tezuka... that's all the girls in our form in Seigaku!"

He let out a rare smirk. "Well, you obviously missed someone, then."

"Can we go over the list again? Just to make sure?"

Surely whom he liked couldn't be _that_ intriguing...?

"...I have homework."

"You can listen and study at the same time, can't you? Don't tell me you, the model student of Seigaku, can't multitask." She'd read somewhere that appealing to masculine pride was always the easiest way to get them to agree.

"But you have homework as well," He pointed out, and added for good measure, "Which you're supposed to be doing."

...Tezuka was obviously not a normal specimen of the male species.

But she wasn't going to give this up without a fight. She did stop to wonder for a moment _why_ she wanted to know so much, but told herself firmly that it was just natural curiosity, plain and simple.

Now, if that niggling little voice at the back of her head that kept insisting it was more than that would just do her a favour and shut up.

"Do I know her?"

* * *

After three days of constant pestering, he was getting positively annoyed. She had gone through every single girl in their form at least five times, and had now decided to expand the list to the whole female population of Seigaku.

He'd have been greatly amused at her persistence – if it hadn't involved his non-existent love life which, as a matter of fact, she didn't have any business poking her nose into.

The fact that _she_ was the subject of said love life didn't matter at all.

Right.

_Great logic, Sherlock. Keep going._

...all that stress must really be getting to him.

He sighed, and tuned back into the lesson. Geography was one of his best subjects, and he really wouldn't want to fall behind just because of a pesky, thoroughly irritating _girl_.

Risking a quick glance at Maika, he was slightly disturbed to see her studying him speculatively.

He decided he didn't want to know what she was thinking.

The moment the period was over, she leaned over and whispered into his ear, "It's Akita-sensei, isn't it?"

Tezuka was suddenly attacked by a violent coughing fit, causing Oishi to rush over in motherly concern.

_Really._ There were just some things he'd have been better off not knowing.

* * *

Maika put her book down. She'd been staring at the same page for half an hour, and if she didn't do _something_ soon, she'd go crazy.

But what was there to do?

She swept the room with a glance, and brightened when she saw the magnificently carved wooden door on her left. With a few skips and a hop added in for good measure, she reached the door and threw it open.

"Say, Atobe, do you know what's the – "

And abruptly stopped.

There, frozen a mere three feet away from her in utter shock, was Atobe Keigo – clad in nothing but a fluffy white towel that barely covered – well, _covered_.

Her scream brought all the maids running in time to witness the amazing sight of their young master flushing to the roots of his hair, desperately trying to cover what should _never_ be exposed to public while his enemy-cum-love interest (it was a longstanding joke among the staff that if they were to get married, all the wedding furniture would be torn to shreds within the first week of the honeymoon) yelled bloody murder.

He would never really be able to keep up the arrogant, I'm-better-than-you manner in front of Maika again. Not when his pride as a man was so viciously trampled upon and crushed into the dust.

* * *

"That man is a _total exhibitionist_," seethed Maika, blissfully ignoring the fact that she was the one who had entered without knocking in the first place. "Didn't anyone teach him how indecent it is to walk around with such a precariously-placed piece of cloth? It very nearly fell off!"

Her cheeks were flaming, and she _really_ didn't want to think what could have happened if it _had_ fallen.

"It wouldn't have been _that_ bad, now would it?" She jerked upwards at the unmistakably male voice of said culprit.

Atobe Defence Mechanism No. 1: Peacock the whole situation out. Remember, everyone loves you!

"...you did _not_ just say that."

"What? Come on, admit it! My body is the epitome of manhood – "

She couldn't believe it. "My virgin eyes have just been subjected to torture, and now you want to defile my ears as well?!"

"What torture? I'll have you know that most girls would _kill_ to be in your place!"

"Well, _I'd_ kill to have them _take_ my place!" She huffed.

His eyes narrowed. "Are you trying to suggest that I'm repulsive?"

Atobe Defence Mechanism No. 2: Rhetoric. It's a politician's best friend, and it actually works. Well, on normal people, that is.

"I – "

"Revolting? Disgusting? _Nauseating?_"

Much to his horror, she actually stopped and gave him an appraising look.

"Well..." She pondered.

"You're not supposed to have to _think_ about such questions!" Atobe spluttered indignantly. Was she mocking his body – his perfect, _sculpted_ body? Oh, the _horror!_ Blasphemy!

"...not _quite_ nauseating, but maybe..." Her tone definitely held a hint of mischief now.

What could be worse than being 'not _quite_ nauseating' anyway? She couldn't degrade him any further than she already had.

Oh, he was so, _so_ wrong.

"...average?"

"_WHAT?!_"

* * *

Maika heard the door slam and grinned. So he still wasn't over that 'average' insult yet. Really, you'd have thought that with such a huge ego, it'd be impossible for someone to even dent it. But no, Atobe's ego was like an inflatable balloon – you just had to know where to poke it, and then voila! All you had to do was to sit back, and watch it deflate.

It was such _fun_ annoying Atobe.

Although nothing could beat infuriating Tezuka, of course.

...Tezuka.

Who liked someone, and was getting more and more short-tempered each time he saw her.

She winced, remembering his curt reply to her the day before at school. Although, technically speaking, that had been mostly her fault, since she had been pressing him once again on the subject of his love life.

And of course, talking about Atobe probably didn't help matters much, since their tennis teams were always going head-to-head in some competition or other.

...but still.

It seemed like Tezuka was perpetually grumpy these days. And besides, she really _did_ want to know who he liked – not just because being a busybody was something to liven up the monotony of school, but because she had a vested interest in it.

...as his friend, of course.

Well, _duh._ What else would it be as?

_On second thought, __**don't**__ answer that question._

Back to topic. How was she going to get Tezuka to be, well, to put it simply, less grumpy again?

Of course, one easy way would be to drop the whole love life topic altogether, but she was quite incapable of doing that, due to said vested interest.

So.

Say sorry to him and continue pestering anyway?

_He'd probably fix me with that terror-inducing glare of his, and perhaps bring some earplugs the next day._

Drag him out to relax, and ply him with wine until he finally told her who he liked?

Now _that_ would be an interesting sight to behold. Except, of course, for the insignificant little detail that Tezuka wouldn't even _touch_ alcohol.

So that was out. What else?

Drive him to distraction until he reached his breaking point and annihilated her?

She sighed. None of her suggestions were even remotely workable, and the one person who could help her – well, let's just say she was on an "Avoid Fuji" mission ever since that supremely awkward incident on the roof.

_Oh well, let's just hope I don't get frostbite tomorrow from sitting next to Tezuka._

* * *

Tezuka, meanwhile, was having problems of his own, courtesy of a certain tensai.

Fuji had called him out to the library with the pretext of wanting to study together, since the 'alien from St. Rudolph', as Fuji so kindly put it, was apparently systematically trying to destroy his brain cells by aggravating him to high heaven.

"If Yuuta hadn't been there, I'd have – "

"I'll meet you there," Tezuka interrupted, and hurriedly put down the phone. The one thing he patently did _not_ want to do was to listen to Fuji's evil, evil plans for the slow and agonising murder of that hapless manager. He'd had the privilege of being privy to the tensai's plots once, and that particular image had taken the better half of a year to stop haunting his dreams.

Really_._ You'd think Fuji could put his brain to better use than churning up graphically horrifying scenes of torture and destruction.

So anyway. Here he was, sitting in the library with Fuji.

Except, of course, that Fuji wasn't studying.

At all.

What he had evidently come out here to do was to shake his head at Tezuka, and sigh desolately as if all hope was lost forever.

Tezuka, for his part, was getting more and more annoyed by all the weird, unexplainable noises coming his way. After ignoring it for the better part of an hour, he finally put down his book sharply and turned to face Fuji.

"_What?_"

The pair of blue eyes brightened, as if they had been waiting an eternity for his signal. And then they narrowed.

Tezuka became just _slightly_ worried.

"Well?"

"...well what?" Fuji's voice was positively dripping with innocence.

"You obviously have something you want to say," Tezuka pointed out blandly. Two could play at this game. He hadn't been Fuji's best friend for the past three years for nothing, after all.

"And what makes you think that?"

"I don't know... maybe the hundred or more so sighs you've let out in the past hour?"

Fuji quirked an eyebrow. "Indeed. You're very observant, Tezuka. I was beginning to think you might be deaf."

He had obviously forgotten that Fuji was a very dangerous opponent with an extremely sharp tongue.

He decided to go with the obvious. "Well, I'm not."

"So I see." The honey-haired tensai smiled blindingly.

The silence began to stretch unnervingly long.

Finally, Fuji broke it.

"So, Tezuka." He laced his fingers together before propping up his chin on them. Tezuka was vaguely reminded of a spider waiting for a fly to get caught in his web, and shifted just an inch further away from Fuji.

"How's Maika?"

"...what?" The unexpected question threw him somewhat off-kilter. What did _she_ have to do with all this, anyway?

Fuji beamed down angelically at him.

Tezuka took the hint.

"She's... okay, I guess."

"Ah." Was Fuji's contribution. "And you?"

Tezuka was beginning to think that the tensai might perhaps actually have lost his mind, and was just about to point out that he was obviously very well, thank you, apart from the fact that he was being driven to distraction by a certain blue-eyed boy who absolutely refused to leave him in peace – when he remembered The Kiss.

And suddenly Fuji's motives became crystal clear.

"Fine, thank you." The answer was crisp and curt.

_You are NOT prying any information about her out of me._

Fuji blinked. Was Tezuka actually... _jealous?_

Wow. That was _slow._ Even by emotionally stunted human standards, that was _really_ slow.

If it hadn't been for the fact that Tezuka was right in front of him, and that cackling aloud to himself might get him kicked out of the library and being labeled a madman, he could've clapped his hands in glee. But none of these things could be done, so his smile merely grew the tiniest bit wider.

"So when are you going to confess to her?"

"I – _what?!_"

Fuji grinned. It paid to be obvious, especially if you had a reputation of being subtle.

"She's not going to be sitting next to you forever, Tezuka. How about a bouquet of roses? Or maybe serenade her with a song..."

* * *

Five minutes later, Fuji walked out of the library with a supremely unamused Tezuka in tow, having gotten them kicked out by causing Tezuka to erupt in a spectacular fashion.

"Denial, denial... are there any other excuses you'd like to offer before I help you plan your confession?"

Tezuka, who had decided some time ago that he'd much rather sew his lips shut than give Fuji even the tiniest hint that he liked Maika, merely pressed his lips into a thin line.

"No? Well then, shall we make a trip to the florist?" Fuji's smile was absolutely blinding.

Tezuka was _this_ close to annihilating Fuji on the spot.

"Fuji. Go. _Now._"

Fuji apparently knew better than to risk a double explosion of his captain's wrath, because a piece of paper was swiftly pressed into said captain's hand, and Fuji was off with a cheery wave before Tezuka could even blink.

Then again, maybe not.

It was well for Fuji that he was three streets away by the time Tezuka had the presence of mind to read the paper, on which the following words were printed in – the very word made Tezuka cringe, but there was no way around it – excessively _cute_ font:

_Flowers for your loved ones? Call 013-xxxxxxx! Our personal consultants will coach you in the language of these beautiful blossoms!_

And in Fuji's neat handwriting:

_P/S: Roses are cliched, try violets. Or cacti. Actually, forget the violets. Cacti would probably be the best choice. You do kind of resemble a cactus yourself, you know._

"_**FUJI**__."_

The passers-by might be forgiven for giving the tall young man a _very_ wide berth – especially since he was currently planning the horrific murder of a certain blue-eyed boy in ways too gruesome to imagine.

Boy, was Fuji ever going to _get_ it in tennis practice tomorrow.

* * *

_Credits: One of the lines up there is from Isaac Asimov's Foundation. _

_Review? :)_


	24. Chapter 24

_I don't know if anyone still reads this, but I'd rather not leave things hanging, so here goes:_

_First off, I'd like to apologise to all my readers for the 18-month delay in getting this chapter up. (somehow 18 months sounds shorter than one and a half years... XD) But yes, real life caught up with me, which is why this story is only getting updated now. In any case, I plan to finish the story, although I can't say how much time I'll take between chapters - hopefully it'll be shorter! :P Also, please be kind and remember that the only writing I've done in the past year or so has been strictly scientific. T_T_

_With that said, read on!_

* * *

**Recap**

It was well for Fuji that he was three streets away by the time Tezuka had the presence of mind to read the paper, on which the following words were printed in – the very word made Tezuka cringe, but there was no way around it – excessively _cute_ font:

_Flowers for your loved ones? Call 013-xxxxxxx! Our personal consultants will coach you in the language of these beautiful blossoms!_

And in Fuji's neat handwriting:

_P/S: Roses are cliched, try violets. Or cacti. Actually, cacti would probably be the best choice. You do kind of resemble a cactus yourself, you know._

"_**FUJI**__."_

The passers-by might be forgiven for giving the tall young man a _very_ wide berth – especially since he was currently planning the horrific murder of a certain blue-eyed boy in ways too gruesome to imagine.

Boy, was he ever going to _get_ it in tennis practice tomorrow.

* * *

**Chapter 24**

Maika, on the other hand, had her own problems to deal with. Atobe's ego had somehow made a complete recovery and was now well on its way to surpassing its former greatness, the result being that he was currently listing every single one of his positive attributes to her.

"Look at me! I'm incomparably good-looking, rich beyond your wildest dreams, brilliantly talented, a _wonderful_ person – " Maika snorted at that, earning herself a dirty look from said wonderful person, " – with an amazing personality – don't you like me?"

It was probably not the response he was looking for, but she simply couldn't help it.

She laughed in his face.

He absolutely _refused_ to speak to her for the rest of the day.

* * *

Much to Maika's dismay, they were back at it again the very next day. Atobe had gone from persuading and wheedling to flat-out despair.

"But why _don't_ you like me? I don't understand!" He was _this _close to wailing.

"I – um – it's that mad glint in your eye!"

And before he had time to even process the terribly foreign thought that something was actually _wrong_ with his eye, she had bolted from the room.

"..."

* * *

"50 laps around the court!"

A moan came from the general direction of the regulars. "But we've already run so many..."

"Nya, Fuji, Tezuka's so evil..." Eiji whined, forgetting somewhat unfortunately that Tezuka had impossibly sharp hearing.

"Kikumaru, extra 10 laps!"

Fuji's knowing grin didn't falter the tiniest bit when Tezuka turned to him.

"Fuji, extra 50 laps. _Now._"

After all, 100 laps around the court was a small price to pay for the privilege of annoying Tezuka to the point of distraction. Besides, it was in the service of a friend, so no one could fault him for actually being _good_. And if helping that friend meant torturing him with the best of intentions (all in the name of snapping Tezuka out of his denial mode, of course) – then why, who was Fuji Syuusuke to say otherwise?

He grinned, and gave Tezuka a sideways glance that had the immediate effect of putting the captain in hyper-alert mode for any dastardly Fuji-plots that might be waiting for him around the corner. Or for that matter, any time in the foreseeable and not-so-foreseeable future. You never knew what was coming with Fuji.

Fuji waved at the taller boy, and Tezuka suddenly had a very, very bad feeling about that smile.

* * *

Atobe Keigo stepped out of the bathroom, and was greeted by the pleasant sight of himself in a full-length mirror, water droplets tracing the curve of his glistening muscles to where it disappeared under a towel. He flicked his wet hair experimentally to one side, sending a shower of water droplets onto the carpet.

What mad glint was she talking about? He was a _perfect_ specimen of male virility, thank you very much! Maybe he – horror of horrors! – squinted whenever he talked to her?

He inspected his reflection in the mirror critically, squinting to see if he could recreate that mad glint of hers. After ten minutes of distorting his eyes in every way humanly possible, he decided to chalk her statement down to temporary insanity caused by the overload of gorgeousness whenever he was within ten feet of her.

Having settled that, he stepped back in satisfaction and gave himself an appreciative once-over.

"Why, hello there," He winked at the chiselled Greek god standing before him. "And how are you today?"

And of course, Murphy's Law dictated that his mother would walk in on him at that very moment.

"Keigo, what are you _doing?_ For goodness' sake, stop making eyes at your reflection in the mirror! And put on some _clothes!_"

* * *

_Why don't I like him? _

That was a very good question... one for which she had no answer.

She tapped her pencil on the desk irritably. Every question had an answer, and she'd be damned if she couldn't answer one simple little question about herself.

_Come on, I can do this..._

* * *

Three hours and ten pages of doodles later, she had a splitting headache, two used scribbling pads, and nothing to show for it.

...either she was very, _very_ stupid, or she was going about this the wrong way.

She thought for a moment, when she suddenly hit on the perfect solution. Why hadn't she thought of using the resources at her disposal before? After all, even directors did research before making decisions, and surely a question as mind-boggling as this merited a fair amount of research and groundwork before she could be expected to come up with a logical answer.

And that was why Atobe Keigo came back from tennis practice two hours later only to find a disgustingly soppy romantic-comedy playing on the television, a bowl of half-eaten popcorn lying amidst a few hastily scribbled notes on the table, and his lady love fast asleep on his sofa.

It could have been the start of something vaguely resembling peace, if he hadn't noticed a rough sketch labelled with his name among the haphazardly scattered notes. Curiously enough, it bore a remarkable resemblance to a member of the primate family.

"For the last time, I am _NOT_ A MONKEY!"

* * *

Maika dropped into her seat with a resigned sigh. As much as she was tired of being cooped up in a confined space with Atobe (not for much longer, thankfully – her parents would be back soon), school was much, much worse. It was terribly _boring_, and she was sure there would be a terrifying mountain of homework to be done by the end of the day. At least the grey-haired boy provided her with an endless stream of entertainment, even if it wasn't always on purpose.

She snuck a look at Tezuka, who was reading a book with such complete absorption that he hadn't even noticed her. She debated briefly on the merits of disturbing him, decided that it was too early in the morning to have intellectual conversations about the importance of school, and graciously left him to his own devices.

All was quiet in their row.

In fact, come to think of it, it was a little _too _quiet. There was practically no sign of life from the seat next to hers, not even the rustling of pages.

_Heh._

Maika began to grin, looking for all the world like a cat that had just swallowed the cream.

* * *

"Say, Tezuka?"

The sudden voice jerked him from his reverie. He nearly fell off his chair, but somehow managed to keep his face perfectly straight.

"What?" His voice held just the right hint of annoyance at being disturbed from an engrossing book. For someone who'd had so little practice, he did an admirable job of pretending that he hadn't just been caught spacing out, even if he said so himself.

_Turning into a narcissist, are you?_

Oh, how he _hated_ that snippy little voice inside his brain.

_Well, if it isn't the girl demon who's currently plaguing your thoughts every waking moment_ – he sighed, and clamped down firmly on that stupid runaway part of his mind that persisted in keeping a running commentary on his life in a style that reminded him of one of those horrible, gooseflesh-inducing soap operas.

"What're you doing?"

_Thinking about you_, that stubborn little piece of white matter gleefully supplied.

_Was not!_ He had been, if anything, thinking about Fuji and his evil schemes which Tezuka was sure were just about to come. Getting caught in another of the tensai's nefarious plots was not particularly high on his list of to-do things in life – and three years of knowing Fuji had taught him that the blue-eyed boy _never_ let go of an idea once he caught hold of it, which, suffice to say, did not bode well for a certain Tezuka Kunimitsu.

He decided it was too much trouble trying to explain why he was inventing ways to circumvent plots which didn't even exist in the first place and sounding like a paranoid schizophrenic, so he went for the obvious instead.

Assuming his best are-you-blind-or-what face, Tezuka glanced at his book, then looked at her as if she had just proven herself a complete idiot.

"...I'm reading."

"You've been on the same page for the past ten minutes," There was no mistaking the note of mischief in her voice.

_She's been watching you for the last ten minutes! Maybe you're not such a hopeless case after all_...

He squashed that traitorous thought and the sudden surge of irrational glee that accompanied it.

_In case you hadn't realised, I've never __**been**__ a hopeless case,_ the more sane part of his mind pointed out acidly. _Might I remind you of the annual pile of Valentine Day gifts on my table?_ He cheered it, before realising to his consternation that he was actually _supporting_ one part of his brain against the other.

...he sounded like a psychiatric case.

"You're thinking about her, aren't you?"

His neat, completely logical and also utterly useless debate skidded to a confused halt.

"Her?" He echoed blankly.

She grinned meaningfully at him. "You know, _her_..."

_Oh._ _Back to this, are we?_

He sighed in exasperation, and decided that the best course of action was to be as obtuse as possible.

"No, I don't know _her_. Now if you'll excuse me," he gestured to his book, "some people actually have something more useful to do other than talking about random unidentified females."

"You're right," She agreed brightly. "So let's talk about a specific _identified_ female then! Come on, you can tell me who it is..."

...someone must have pressed the rewind and repeat button on his life just to spite him.

He resisted the terrible urge to bury his head under the nearest object, and settled instead for rolling strips of tissue paper into neat little buds to put into his ears.

They didn't make very effective earplugs, as he found out.

* * *

_Why do I keep turning him down? _

She had pondered that question for awhile now, but her research had given her nothing except accidental afternoon naps punctuated by Atobe's occasional fits of rage at being drawn in various primate forms. She chuckled fondly at that memory, and was wondering whether she should draw a gorilla or chimpanzee next, when her brain piped up.

_Maybe you like someone else_.

She stopped.

Well, that would make sense. In all those melodramas she had seen in the name of research, the only reason why the good guy didn't get the girl was because the girl loved that _other_ guy, who loved _another_ girl, who loved the first guy. Or at least, that was as much as she gathered before she fell asleep halfway through.

Honestly, she got a headache just thinking about it.

_Looks like the hours clocked watching TV weren't as useless as you thought, no?_

But that was just ridiculous. Weird love squares like that didn't happen in real life. Besides, that would mean she would have to like someone else, and that was impossible.

...fine, it wasn't impossible. It was just highly unlikely... _why, the only candidates would be Atobe, Tezuka and – _

_! ! !_

_Wait._

_No._

_That would be impossible. Surely?_

Why, he was intellectual, boring, a complete stick in the mud when it came to rules and schoolwork, in possession of a fanclub that she would rather _die_ than be associated with...

Okay, so the first one wasn't exactly a negative trait. And the last wasn't really his fault either, but still... it would be just too weird. Not to mention hopeless and setting oneself up for heartbreak – she'd seen countless girls get rejected and had absolutely no intention of joining the throes of the broken-hearted that surrounded Tezuka Kunimitsu.

_But then again, I guess it's not quite true. He might not reject everyone. After all, there is this certain unidentified female..._

Oh.

_OH._

Oh dear.

_I can't tell him... he already likes someone else!_ She groaned. Why did she have to go and ask herself such stupid questions anyway? She was perfectly happy _before_ her little bout of soul-searching.

Stupid Atobe and his stupid questions.

She reached for a piece of paper and a newly sharpened pencil.

The next time Atobe Keigo walked over to her working area, he nearly brought the house down.

"**_WHY AM I A SLUG?_**_"_

* * *

In a traditional-looking house some distance away, a certain young man was surreptitiously looking up 'schizophrenia' in his trusty encyclopaedia.

_Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by a disintegration of thought processes and of emotional responsiveness. Symptoms include third-person auditory hallucinations, delusions and poor or non-existent social functioning. _

Tezuka was starting to feel just the tiniest bit worried.

_Voices heard are usually rude, critical, abusive or just annoying. They may describe activities taking place or discuss the hearer's thoughts and behaviour._

Okay, so maybe he just happened to meet a few criteria. That didn't necessarily mean anything.

_Onset of schizophrenia is most common in males in their teens to early twenties._

_..._

He stared at the page in consternation.

This was ridiculous. He was most certainly _not_ schizophrenic.

_Denial, denial..._ sang the resident troublemaker inside his head with inordinate glee.

Tezuka Kunimitsu had bad days, and then he had _**bad**_ days.

* * *

_So... how was it? :/_

_Review? :D_


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